I had to say goodbye to my cat Beacon late this morning and watch him take his last breath. We had him for 16 years after we adopted him when he was about 2. He went through alot in his life starting with being abandoned twice before we adopted him and then getting glaucoma and losing one his eyes, getting diabetes, and losing all but five of his teeth.
We expected it to happen in the coming months as he had been losing weight the last year and when my dad took him to the vet this summer he was told that the vet suspected he had a mass in his stomach and that he could open him up but didn't think he could do much for him whether it was cancerous or not. My parents decided after all the operations he's gone through in his life and going to vet being too stressful on him to just let him live out whatever time he had left as long as he wasn't in pain. Because of the mass he vomited every so often so my parents had to give him a pill to prevent dehydration but other than that he seemed pretty happy.
He had been slowing down and having trouble walking the past few months and things started getting bad on Wednesday when my mom said he wasn't eating and his walking was getting worse. Then later that night he collapsed and couldn't get up no matter how hard he tried. We knew then the end was coming so we just tried to make things as comfortable for him and made sure someone was with him at all times. He wasn't eating but he was still trying to drink water. He was still peeing even though he was losing control of holding it before we got him to the litter but he was too weak to try and go to the washroom.
I woke up this morning and was told he was less responsive than yesterday. About an hour later he tried to sit up which was usually a sign he wanted to pee so we took him downstairs and I held him in the litter so he could go and noticed he was peeing but wasn't even trying anymore to support himself. I gave him back to my mom and she wrapped him in a blanket and took him back upstairs and I went to the kitchen to get something to eat and she started crying saying she thought he was gone. She picked him up and brought him over to me and I saw him lift his head back like he was trying to grasp for air and then went limp. I called my dad and told him to get home and then just sat on the couch in shock until it finally set in he was gone. I couldn't help but wonder if I had done something when holding him in the litter and then handing him to my mom that caused something but they told me to not think like that and that it was just his time to go.
As disappointed as I was having to move back home for a while I'm glad I was able to spend some time with him after only seeing him a couple times a year when I would come home to visit. It's sad but one thing I'm grateful for is he passed away on his terms instead of having his life cut short getting hit by a car like two of my other cats.
Rest in peace bud.
