The boys left for my parents house about lunchtime today, and Lizze and I had a quiet afternoon.

Neither one of us was looking forward to what 2:30 PM would require us to do.

We’ve been dreading this day and the pain we knew it was going to inflict on all of us, but some things are outside of our control. It’s difficult to know just how much an animal can impact our lives until the moment we must say goodbye.

Cleo has been a part of our family for over thirteen years and today we laid her to rest.

Making the decision to put her to sleep was not one that came easily. We tried for months to get her passed what she was going through but sometimes things can’t be fixed, no matter how hard we try.

Before we left to take her to the vet, we brushed her and cleaned her up. We wanted to do right by her.

Once we arrived, our vet made this as easy on us as possible, and we appreciate that.

I asked to take care of the bill before hand because after saying goodbye to Cloe, I didn’t want to think about anything else. That was the right decision to make because Lizze and I were a complete mess afterwards.

I mentioned in a previous post that our vet charged us to be with her as she passed away. I was kinda upset about that because it seemed callus and even cruel in a way.

When I went to pay the bill, it turned out that I had been misinformed about the charges. They gave us the option to be present, meaning if we couldn’t handle witnessing the procedure, we could wait in the waiting room. As it turns out, there was no charge for staying with Cleo while she passed on.

We’ve never had to put a pet to sleep since we were with this vet, so we didn’t know what to expect.

The entire process was very fast, and we held her as she passed on.

We tend to think of doctors as very clinical people, who maintain a professional distance from their patients. I don’t know if that makes sense but I’m not sure how else to say it.

As the vet was injecting Cleo with the medication that would make her go to sleep, he was fighting back tears. Lizze and I were crying as Cleo peacefully slipped away.

I know we’re talking about a cat dying and some people may not appreciate how painful this is. In those moments leading up to and immediately following her passing, showed how much of an impact Cleo had on the humans in her life.

Seeing our vet this emotional was oddly comforting and we are so grateful for the amount of compassion they showed in this very difficult time. Cloe was treated with respect and dignity.

She’s already missed and I imagine the next few days will be difficult on all of us.

The kids have been distracted and because of that, they’re doing okay. They have really mentioned anything about it, but we are aware that Elliott has been doing a great deal of writing about it.

Our goal is to get the kids to school in the morning. That would be the best thing for them however, if we have a repeat of last night (they never fell asleep), it may end up being a three day weekend.