It's excruciating, but true. The good ones train US. They even train us to know when it's time to let them go. I had a cat that was just like your description of how Daphne had become. Before him I'd had cats in worse shape, that I held onto longer. By the time I had him, I was ready to let go earlier and spare him more suffering. And you will find that the same with your next pet-- learning to let go sooner.

Nowadays I protect my heart from that depth of grief by adding a new one long before the "best" one starts to suffer. The new one comforts me when I must let go of the "best" one and in time, it becomes the "best" one (helping to train another younger one). I still grieve them in their turn, but as I get older it's more and more a comfort to me to know that I spared them....

It helps me free up the cleansing tears to thank each of them, in the weeks and months after they're gone, for teaching me better for the next one.

This decision is not only the last thing we can do, for them; it's the last thing they do, for us. So I give thanks to Daphne for EVERYthing she taught you-- even this hard, hard lesson.

(((Amergin)))
this heartbreak

~Susan