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<div>Hi Bob,</div>
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<div>Your original post DID make it thru - and it was very touching. Thank you for sending it.</div>
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<div>Kat (Mew Jersey)</div>
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<div style="margin:0 0 10px 0;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 5:14 PM<br/>
<b>From:</b> "ROBERT CHAPEL" <bchapel@optonline.net><br/>
<b>To:</b> felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<br/>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Felvtalk] Nicely Stated...</div>
<div name="quoted-content">Hi Folks....<br/>
<br/>
Once again I sent something to the list and it has not appeared in my<br/>
mail...so I have no idea if it made it to the group......<br/>
My brother had to put down his buddy ( a border collie) of 14 yrs the<br/>
other day and I had come across a piece a fellow wrote about losing his<br/>
own dog after the same amount of time.... though this is about the loss<br/>
of a dog it is equally applicable to cats and captures the sentiment<br/>
just beautifully..<br/>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
To most, he was “just” a dog. To me, he was so much more than just a<br/>
best friend, he was an integral part of my life, and my world for over<br/>
14 years. I was there to see him take his first breath in this world.<br/>
And I was there when he breathed his last, after a long and, I hope,<br/>
happy life. And when he left this world, it was as if a large piece of<br/>
me was violently torn away. Eventually the countless happy memories of<br/>
the all too brief time I had with him will crowd out the anguish of the<br/>
last moments we spent. For now, I can take only cold comfort in knowing<br/>
that when it came time to make the call, I did right by him. His body<br/>
was on the verge of a “cascading system failure”, but it had not yet<br/>
progressed to the point where it had broken his spirit. I had been<br/>
waiting for him to tell me it was his time for some while, but it was<br/>
his prognosis that finally sealed it. He was not going to get better;<br/>
he would only get worse. Even with surgery — which at his age was more<br/>
risk than solution — his best case was a few months, and those would<br/>
have been pain ridden.<br/>
<br/>
I don’t suppose I’ll ever stop second guessing whether I waited too long<br/>
or not long enough. But in the circumstances keeping him going through<br/>
heroic measures would have been for my benefit, not his.<br/>
<br/>
When you bring a dog into your life, you make a bargain. Tonka never<br/>
once failed to deliver on his side of that bargain. And as much as it<br/>
hurt — and will continue to hurt — I had to deliver on mine.<br/>
<br/>
Goodnight pal, see you on the other side. I love you, buddy.<br/>
<br/>
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