On Monday we took our 5 year old Siamese cat Chewy to the vet to be put to sleep.  He was suffering with the last stages of heart disease.  Chewy is the big one in the picture below.

As my wife and I noticed Chewy getting worse we made 2 decisions:

1. To love him well, all the way to the end
2. To put him down before he was in pain or having trouble getting around

Chewy was a very lovable and affectionate cat, so the first decision was easy to follow through on.  For me, loving him well meant not only petting him and continuing to say nice things to him during his last days, it also meant being with him until his very last heart beat in the veterinarian’s office.  He brought me a tremendous amount of joy, so it was my privilege to usher him out with love.

Following through on the second decision sucked.  We could tell that Chewy’s time had come, but that didn’t make it any easier.  It was hard to scoop him up in my arms and take him to the vet, knowing that for him, it would be a one way trip.  Although we knew it was the right thing to do, it didn’t feel very good.

Letting him go beyond this point, because we didn’t want to do what was hard, would have been cruel to Chewy and would have gone against the first decision we made, which was to love him well to the end.

While we miss Chewy’s presence, we are grateful that we followed through with our decision regarding when to take him in.  Even though it sucked.