Hey, Miss J!

Today my aunt’s dog died. And I couldn’t be more furious with her.

How do I even begin this one? It’s a lot to unpack. I told my father today that I’m sorry he lost his friend. Last year, when I found out that one of my cats was dying from cancer, they found out that the dog had collapsed trachea.

Then, I told my father that they needed to do something to help her, otherwise she would suffer before she died.

It explained everything. The honking cough she’d had since at least 2019, how at first she was better when outside away from the dust inside.

Instead, I heard a litany of excuses. My father even told me today that he couldn’t afford to put her to sleep. I guess he forgot that I actually have access to his bank account. It would have cost at most $300 to put her down peacefully.

He had more than enough.

But hey… cigarettes and alcohol aren’t going to pay for themselves… y’unno?

Instead, the dog finally died behind my aunt’s bed after her trachea caved in and she couldn’t breathe at all anymore.

What happens with that condition is that after a while, the muscles needed to keep the trachea open grow too weak to maintain it.

Surgery could have helped her. There’s a 75% survival rate. Pet insurance covers it too.

You know… I don’t even want to post this online, but I’m so very angry about this.

When I found out my little cat was so sick last year, I put her down before she was suffering. She never got to a stage where she was struggling just to move or breathe. I refused to let that happen.

This is now the second time my family has allowed an animal to suffer before dying. The previous one was peeing blood for months and growing steadily weaker until my father took her in to be put down. If he hadn’t, I’m sure she would have died the next day.

Instead… this sweet girl this time… she suffered for years, being unable to breathe and struggled all day today to catch her next breath… while all of them stood there and did nothing.

I was blunt with my father: “You all shouldn’t ever EVER have a pet again. Never AGAIN! None of you!”

Having a pet means you take care of them. It doesn’t mean that you neglect them and let them suffer. I can barely afford it, but I’m taking my sweet old cat to the vet to see if he can check out her ears. The groomer told me that there was a possibility the cat has an ear infection.

Since this creature is turning 20 years old tomorrow, I’m trying to keep her alive a little bit longer. And out of pain.  

Yes…

Creature. She’s my sweet, feisty little darling regardless!

I originally thought today I would be posting about how excited I was to finally get more organization in the cat’s room. I didn’t expect anything like this to happen – though to be fair, I was waiting for the dog to drop dead.

Dust was bad for her, but they never dusted. My dad smoked inside and they never walked her… overfed her. She got white in the face. I told them last year that I would take her. At the last minute, they refused.

I do believe that if I’d had her, she’d still be alive today… breathing well and more than likely with a family that really loved her. She would have died of old age and not as agonizingly as she did.

She must have been so frightened.

What happened to her wasn’t fair at all.

I wonder how they would feel if they were nearly suffocating to death every day… And then one day, just couldn’t catch their breath.

Would that change things? I have no clue.

Apologies for the venting rant. My family aren’t the only ones I’ve see allow their animal to suffer until it just up and died.

If I ever thought that I wouldn’t be able to care for my cat, I would find a friend to take her in. I would not let basic care slip just ‘because.’

Pets are part of the family… which is why you should show them love in actions… not just in words.

I’m so upset I want to scream. I want to call my family up for the next three weeks and scream how they need to never get an animal… or stand outside at 2 in the morning with a bullhorn and explain to EVERYONE in the area why they should never be allowed to have pets at all.

Meds and just a hefty amount of common sense is why I’ll never do that though. Nothing will be accomplished by that.

My dad feeds alley cats. That’s as far as that should go.

Course now I think I’ll let the old cat sleep in here with me for a while. I want to just cuddle her now.

~J. Lyst

I’m going to finish working in her bedroom. I’ve been doing so much to make the house safer for both of us. She even has her own air purifier in her room now.