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17416. wonkers2 - 11/7/2005 3:11:02 PM Hey! The cat lived a long and, no doubt, pampered life and died. You'd think she'd lost a child or sibling. I wonder how much she spent on veterinarian bills. I have a friend who has an old dog sick with cancer. He's been conned into expensive radiation treatments which are likely to prolong the dog's life no more than a few months. I suggested he donate the money to Louisiana or Pakistan disaster relief rather than waste the money on a dog with a fatal disease. He was a bit offended by my cruel suggestion. Where I grew up a merciful shot to the dog's or horse's head solved the problem. 17417. ScottLoar - 11/7/2005 3:30:35 PM I agree to a merciful shot to the head rather than prolong misery but as I wrote, the cat died peacefully in its sleep, nothing untoward, nothing extraordinary save it was enfeebled.
Surely my daughter can discriminate between the loss of her pet cat and, for example, her aunt, but it must be a blunt mind or a dead heart that fails to understand affection and denies sympathy.
All of which is good reason to never again reveal too much about oneself in a public forum. 17418. wonkers2 - 11/7/2005 4:02:46 PM Your daughter has my sympathy. Apparently my comment on costly, heroic veterinary efforts was misplaced. However,wonder how much it cost to have the animal cremated? I have grieved over the deaths of pets--a dog and several cats. We now have a seventeen-year-old cat that is starting to show signs of old age. However, we don't plan to give a bunch of money to a veterinarian to prolong his life. Rich people in California spend thousands to bury their pets in cemeteries that rival the finest human cemeteries. This is grotesque, in my opinion, not to mention wasteful of scarce resources. 17419. wonkers2 - 11/7/2005 4:03:48 PM Too much money in this country is wasted on human death and funeral rituals, let alone on pets. 17420. PelleNilsson - 11/7/2005 4:52:40 PM I'm with wonkers. I don't understand this maudlin agonizing over the death of animals. 17421. Magoseph - 11/7/2005 5:09:46 PM This is not my day—first I manage to aggravate the tone of a conversation about a cat and then I write a silly post in the International thread. Time to shill for a while! See you all tomorrow. 17422. alistairConnor - 11/7/2005 5:39:09 PM Well, I find it perfectly normal and natural to mourn the death of a friend, albeit of the feline persuasion.
As the usual suspect in matters of cantankerous misanthropy, I award a Golden Harrumph apiece to Pelle and Wonk. 17423. wonkers2 - 11/7/2005 5:47:09 PM I'll display it with pride! 17424. PelleNilsson - 11/7/2005 5:53:51 PM Can one in fact be misanthropic about animals? 17425. wonkers2 - 11/7/2005 6:01:03 PM I don't think so. Good point! 17426. thoughtful - 11/7/2005 6:34:51 PM well i've mourned heartily for many pets i've owned over the years. esp since we have no children, our pets are part of our family. I've spent more on them than i ever thought i would, though even I have my limits.
Old cat had detached retina and vet started talking about laser treatments on her eye by a cat ophthamologist...I said What??? like she can't see to drive or read the phone book? That clearly didn't happen
17427. Ms. No - 11/7/2005 6:58:44 PM Scottloar,
I'm sorry for your family's loss. Be assured that there are many more of us who understand and empathize than feel the need to ridicule that which they simply don't understand. 17428. judithathome - 11/7/2005 7:35:39 PM Ditto.
Maybe Pelle and Wonkers need to get a pet. On second thought, scratch that. 17429. wonkers2 - 11/7/2005 8:11:21 PM FYI, I have a 17-year old cat named Sparky that I care a lot for. But when he begins to fail I don't plan on any big vet bills. And when he dies we aren't planning to have a funeral, cremation, etc. The growing prevalence of big vet bills (medical bills, also, perhaps) for pets, let alone pet funeral rituals, are a sign of a society that has more than its share of the world's income. Feeling sad about the death of a pet is one thing, big spending to prolong its life is something else. 17430. PelleNilsson - 11/7/2005 8:16:41 PM We have had pets. When they have gone we have missed them. and we still have fond memories of them. But I think words like "mourn" and "grief" are too emotionally loaded and too important to use about animals, who briefly shared our lives. Perhaps this has to do with my farm background. The good farmer loves his animals and tries to give them as good a life as possible. But when the time comes to send them to slaughter he is not sentimental about it. It is part of the cycle. 17431. Ms. No - 11/7/2005 9:38:42 PM How you do or don't feel about your own pets is your business, what I object to is telling someone else that they ought not to feel as they do when they lose a pet.
That's pointless and rude at the very least. 17432. PelleNilsson - 11/7/2005 10:28:12 PM I haven't told anyone "what they ought not to feel". In my first post on the matter I said (emphasis added) "I don't understand this maudlin agonizing over the death of animals. Later I amplified on why I hold this view. Please explain how my "not understanding" something in your mind mutates into into my "telling someone else" how they should react to this something, and why my views on this are "pointless and rude", and, by implication, your own are just and objective.
17433. Ms. No - 11/7/2005 11:26:39 PM A lack of understanding that asks for enlightenment or explanation is entirely different from a stated lack of understanding that implies the view isn't worth being understood because it's ridiculous or was that not your intent in agreeing with Wonkers?
What a bunch of maudlin whining over a pet cat that lived a long life! Get another cat. Get another life. Cremating a cat and saving the ashes. Get real!
followed by
I'm with wonkers. I don't understand this maudlin agonizing over the death of animals.
If you don't get it, then fine, but what is the point in telling someone else that their pain is laughable? Explain to me how that isn't both pointless and rude? Was it any skin off your nose to simply not comment?
What Wonkers said was cruel. By agreeing with him what you said was also cruel. If you find that a meaningful and civil way to behave toward friends I hardly see why you'd object to me pointing out what I thought about it. 17434. Max Macks - 11/7/2005 11:40:32 PM My vote is with wonkers and Pelle
I have grieved over the loss of a pet
but to spend thusands of dollars on an animal
is understandable but IMO wrong. 17435. wonkers2 - 11/8/2005 12:13:57 AM Ms. No, what I said was not cruel. It would have perhaps been impolite if the pet had been Loar's. I didn't say to to Loar's daughter, and I wouldn't unless I knew her pretty well.
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