Bess is a Lakeland terrier. She is 10 weeks old. We brought her home several months after Daisy, our fox terrier, died. That is not quite right. We put Daisy down. She had been in constant pain for a couple of weeks. The veterinarian said that due to the dog’s age and multiplicity of ailments, her treatment would be extremely expensive and continuous. He said even so, the odds were not in Daisy’s favour. He gave us a day to think about it. It was I who took Daisy to the vet — she was by that time semi-conscious and in obvious pain. I stroked her head while the vet gave her the shot. My wife could not bear to be there. She stayed home and cried for a week.
As it was, the consultations, the treatment Daisy did receive before her death and her cremation cost just under $1,300. There are those who would say that Daisy deserved more, that she deserved the same level of medical treatment as that of any family member, because Daisy was not just a pet and we were not just her owners. We were her pet “guardians.”
Call me old fashioned but on those infrequent occasions when a family pet is dying a slow painful death, I am the one who does the job and I am the one who buries or cremates them. Men do stuff like that.
I’m with scar. It is not pleasant, but after over 50 years on the farm you learn to deal with unpleasant situations.
My wife and I are cat-people, and over the years have dealt with the end-of-life issues of several of our pets. I’ve been with each one we took to the Vet to administer that last mercy, and cried my eyes out each time. Then lots more tears as I dug a resting place and buried each one. Including the one that is buried (quite against the rules, I think) in a Korean National Park.
No matter how many times you have to deal with it, in never, never gets any easier.
I’m with The Pope on this one. You people should really have some children instead.
Sorry, Dr. Kill, but I’ve had both. Two kids and ten dogs (the first dog before I was old enough for the former). A wise man once said, “If there was any justice in this world, our dogs would live as long as we do” (or words to that effect). And my dogs have been treated as dogs and were all the happier for it. My training skills have improved over the years – I now shudder at how a 13-year-pld “trained” his dog and suffered more than a dozen years of dog-chosen “obedience”. But, on the bright side, no dog ever required school supplies or the latest style in jeans. My current dogs are happy, well-trained members of the family but I have the unwanted but necessary control of their life and death. It’s not as role I relish but one I have had to exercise at the appropriate time.
Dogs are dogs. We still miss them.
Just think if some of the billions spent on pets, was instead spent on say human health care, wouldn’t the world be a better place.
“wouldn’t the world be a better place ?”
I doubt it. I, for one don’t feel I’m responsible for what 7 billion people on this planet do or how they live or how healthy they are. I do know that my dogs have always been special to me and I spend my overtaxed money as I see fit. My elected representatives can save the rest of the world with the money they strong arm from me. They love playing Santa Claus.
Sadly, it does seem that a rather large segment of our child-bearing age population has opted to forego actually having children in favour of pets upon which they lavish money and attention.
I have several acquaintances who astound me in how much they spend on vet bills. In several cases they have spent $5K – $7k on one surgery or another. My last dog, now deceased, was a fabulous companion. But we had an understanding right from the time I picked him out of the pound. $300 bucks. Get sick, get injured and that’s your limit. It seemed to work. He live to 14, was a no fuss, no muss dog that I could reliably leave on my front step – knowing he’d be there even if I was away for two days.
I was just reading an obituary in the local paper, where a 52 yr. old guy died unexpectedly. It referred to him leaving behind his wife and “two feline children”. In fact it referenced his “feline children” twice and asked that any donations go to the local SPCA.
Something sad there, when cats can be an adequate replacement for actually creating a human being that is a part of your own humanity. But maybe it’s just me.
I could be wrong but I think the point of the posts the trend for our moral and intellectual superiors to morph pet ownership into the moronic “guardianship” idea. The next logical step is the state then can take your pet at will because you don’t actually own it.
Next guns will be placed under your “guardianship” until the state decides you shouldn’t have them any more.
Doug said: “Just think if some of the billions spent on pets, was instead spent on say human health care, wouldn’t the world be a better place.”
No.
But medical system bureaucrats and hospital middle managers would increase mightily in number.