[Tabe]

Putting down an animal is never easy. Since we married 17 years ago, my wife and I have had four cats, two of whom we had to put down. The first one, Tugger, was really, really hard. He was "healthy" one day, sick the next, and gone the third when we were told he kidney failure. We both bawled a lot when we lost him. He was the most fiercely loving cat you've ever seen. Greeted you at the door and would demand a piece of your lap as soon as you sat down. We lost Teaser about 18 months ago. We'd had her since right after getting married. She had been blind for a few months but still tore all over the house. We knew she could go at anytime so I started doing things just to make her more comfortable. She responded by simply wanting to be me near me - her favorite thing being to sit on the arm of my recliner while I played video games. When she stopped eating, we knew the time had come. It was tough but we'd had a chance to prepare and knew we were doing the right thing.

I'll be honest with you - there's hardly a day goes by that I don't think of one or both of them.

We have two cats now, one of whom is about 12, maybe 13. I'm gonna be a wreck when I lose him. He & I have had a special connection since the day we got him and he first climbed up on my shoulder.

Tabe