>I think the criteria for putting a pet down is when their quality of life >has deteriorated to the point that its more humane to put them down then to >keep them alive.
Exactly. It's not always easy to tell when they are at that point, and some people wait far too long, but as long as he still is enjoying being with you, it's probably not time to do it yet. It's not always a matter of them being in pain though, my first dog got to the point where he wasn't able to deal with my hardwood floors, his legs would just splay out from under him and I had to carry him around the house all the time. I put down carpets and tried the best I could to make it easy on him, but it was a losing battle. He wasn't in obvious pain but he clearly was miserable at not being able to move around on his own and I did decide it was best to let him go, because it wasn't going to get any better, and he couldn't run and play and enjoy life as he always had. Keeping him alive would have been all for me, not for him. One thing I think that does help is to remember that animals live for the "now". I think we as people put far more emphasis on being able to extend life to the last possible minute than our pets would really care about. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:314026 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
