A sad day

I got a phone call from Barb today while at work. She was bawling her eyes out, wanting to know if I could drop round after work to take her cat, Katz to the vet to be put to sleep. Mike was stuck in a meeting and she had no one else to help her. Katz has been sick for a while, and has had several cancerous tumours removed from both her ear canals, before finally having her ears removed. For several months she has resembled more ferret than cat. But the wounds weren't healing properly and she has been hiding under the kids' bed for the last two days, not eating or drinking and emitting quite an unpleasant smell.

So of course I said yes and prepared for the worst.
I don't really like cats in general, but I got along quite well with Katz and she seemed to like me too. I knew I would be really upset, which was confirmed when I stared crying before we even left Barbs house.
We got to the vet and the waiting room was packed, and I mean packed. You could hardly fit in the door, every seat was taken, there were animals and owners everywhere. So we're standing there and the thought runs through my head 'Great, we're going to have an audience for this' and then I just start bawling, right there. Barb just looks at me, her eyes welling and says 'It's my cat! I thought you were the moral support???' and I reply, tears streaming 'You betcha, I'm your rock'
I guess in any other circumstance, it would have been rather funny.

Katz must have been near the end as she went very quickly. There were lots of tears as we said our final goodbye and then we wrapped her up and drove up to Mums' place where we have our own pet cemetery.

It was really hard watching Barb cope and I know it's going to be just as hard when Tessa finally goes. She's 14 now which is getting on for a dog, so it's really just a matter of time. I can tell you honestly that that will be a day I'm not looking forward to at all.