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The Kindness of In-Home Pet Euthanasia

For our pets and ourselves

Len Morse
6 min readJul 5, 2024
White cat with dark patches and pale blue eyes in a wavy, round frame, in front of a muted blue/green/yellow gradient background.
My sweet girl Ferret. Original photo by author; full image created by author in Canva.

I awoke on the morning of my cat’s in-home euthanasia appointment and realized I’d been laser-focused on my grief and guilt. Fair enough. However, even though those same emotions had all but engulfed me for three days, I realized that wasn’t a story I wanted (or needed) to keep telling myself.

I did my best to shift my mindset to the kindness I was providing my elderly cat, Ferret, and later, to myself. This kindness stemmed from scheduling the process sooner rather than later.

It took three years to get to this point.

Monsters on the horizon

I’d suspected Ferret was dealing with arthritis for a while, but more severe issues were coming.

She was diagnosed with heart disease at 17 years old. Then, colon cancer reared its ugly head a year later. I managed both of those with medication well enough. But then kidney disease appeared 18 months after that, and I knew it was time for her final performance.

In just under three years, nature had stacked the deck against us.

Better to have her go quietly and peacefully than to wait for one of those horrible monsters to take her painfully over the coming months. It was an easy decision for my brain…

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Len Morse
Len Morse

Written by Len Morse

The Halloween Channel owner | Happily childfree musician, proofreader, swing dancer, animal rights supporter, movie buff, and grammar policeman.

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