For all the nastiness that one can encounter on social media, particularly Facebook, there is a well of love in people that a person can count on when and if they decide to tell their social media world that they have to euthanise their cat because of old age. The feelings of bereavement almost always provoke a kind response.
A Cats Protection survey shows us that 73% of pet owners believe that the loss of a pet can be as hard and as emotionally trying as the loss of a person. All genuine cat guardians would endorse this finding. For me the loss of my cats has always been harder than the loss of my close relatives: mother, father and sister. A lot harder I have to honestly say.
For the comedian David Baddiel (writing in The Sunday Times) “it was one of the worst experiences of my life”. He was there with his daughter at the end. Job well done. His daughter wanted to be there because “..he’s been there for every day of my life”. That’s a smart thing to say and a good reason to be there with ‘Monkey’ at the end of his life. To make the final moments as loving and as reassuring as possible. Monkey summoned up a purr in his last seconds.
Baddiel was concerned that he would be ridiculed by some people on Twitter when he announced his cat’s passing. You know the usual stuff: ‘he’s just a cat’ and so on. But there were none. He received nothing but niceness.
And he speculates that niceness at the most difficult time in our relationship with our companion is present because of our companion animals; they make us nicer. It’s their gift to us.
Baddiel has a good female veterinarian who confirmed that it was time for Monkey to go…”Monkey’s gone to heaven” she said. Even if you don’t believe in heaven it is a “lovely untruth” as Baddiel described it.
A lot of people are leaving Facebook because it can be too rough but on the subject of bereavement on the passing of your cat, it can glow with warmth.
P.S. If you have a different viewpoint please share it in a comment. These are my views which can be rebutted.
