saying good-bye to a pet

[irenegro]

... veterinary end-of-life care comes with complications that don’t apply to human medicine. For one, with animals, there is the tiny matter that the patient can’t speak. For another, pets can’t comprehend the trade-off they’re making in enduring the pain and terror of medical treatment now for the promise of more time later. “All they know is, This hurts now,” Rollin told me. “And they look up at you, and they want you to make it stop. And if you’re doing it for eight months to garner another three months — you see what I mean? I don’t think that’s fair to the animal. The animal doesn’t know anything about the last three months. It’s just miserable. And thank God, really, we’re in a position to give them a decent death.”