No-Shop November

As we surge toward Thanksgiving--and it feels like a real surge this year--signs are everywhere that this is the month for shopping. People start talking about Black Friday more than they do about family get-togethers and in this second year of the pandemic, I get it. Hard to get on a plane to see family; easier to order stuff to make you feel better when you can't see them.

The only thing is, my husband and I just spent $1500 in the last two weeks on our seventeen-year-old cat, and there's nothing left to shop with. Our Sydney has cancer, and we are going to try to shrink the tumor(s) if we can, though if we can't there's a terrible decision to make, and we're trying to avoid making it. I'd say at all costs, but I've already given you an idea of the costs.

I'm guessing some of you (many)? reading this have faced the same dilemmas and were as messy as we are about solving them. Thing is, our animal companions are more than animals to us--they are family. If they were human, we would leave the decisions up to them and that, of course, would be easier. But in the case of animals, we can't.

Sydney was about six months old when I brought her home after falling in love with her at an adoption fair at a pet store. She was skittish, hated being held, ran around the house at breakneck speed and captivated my husband and son from the very first moment she stepped inside our door.

She is quieter now and not nearly as spry, but she still jumps up onto our laps and purrs and eats and drinks, and it seems crazy that she's "old" in cat years and has cancer. It's also scary in a whole other way that veterinary services are so expensive and we are spending money we really don't have.

I have friends that tell me their dogs last barely ten years and I don't know how they do that? I am such a mess and it's been seventeen years. I could never deal with a dog dying after ten years.

If you have any words of wisdom about your pet growing older (and sicker) or losing a pet and want to share, please feel free to send your thoughts here. I'd love to know them.

Meanwhile, I hope you have a good month--shopping or no--and that your family continues to grow and expand--and most of all--stays healthy.