Just the other day there was a letter in our newspaper Saturday supplement. Every week they have a letter of someone asking for advice, and the readers may give their opinion.
She was 63, and had had cats for donkys' years, having very sad and intense periods when they grew old and sick and died. From he way she described the suffering at her former cats' death beds, I distinctly got the impression she would not give up on them till they died of 'natural causes', even if it was hopeless ande the cats, themselves, were suffering, too.
Now she still had 2 perfectly healthy cats aged 12 and 13, which she wanted to get rid of. Her argument was that she did not want to go through that heartbreak again. Moreover, she felt too old and tired to get out of bed every night to let them in or out. She didn't want a cat flap, as it would diminish the value of her house, should she ever want to sell it. And she disliked being dependent on neighbours or friends to look after her pets when she wanted to go away for a bit.
So you would expect her to ask how to find a loving home for them, where she could be sure they would be happy.
But, no, she wanted to know how she could convince/force the vet to put her cats down........
Unfortunately, my husband would not let me, or I would have phoned the paper to ask the woman's address, and I would have taken them in, straight away. Poor things. If having to care for a dying loved one is so unbearable, why doesn't she have herself put down? After all, she is about as old as her cats would be in human terms.
He is right, of course, my hubby, I cannot save every single suffering cat in the world, but I wish I could.
The stupidity of some people......
All of the readers who reacted said the same thing:
Even if the vet would agree to put them down (which, in the Netherlands, NO vet will do to a healthy cat), it would cost her more than a new panel in her back door to replace the one with a cat flap. But people also agreed she was clearly indicating that she was, in fact, sick and tired of facing her responsibility for them, so she should rehome them privately or through the animal welfare organisations.
I intended to react and write that cats were people, too, but decided against it, as it would have been an insult to cats all over the world.....
Hopefully, someone else DID have a loving home to offer, and a husband who agreed.....
