bubba thefuddyduddy My 17 year old - in human years - cat. She is old, senile, and stubborn. Her mind refuses to die, although her body is begging her - her ear has rotted off, and her arthritis pains her as she walks. Her vocal chords are compacting after years of age, thereby making her meow the most horrible sound known to man. It sounds as if a baby is shreiking. She is a year older than me, we've grown up together. She slept in my crib. Now she wakes me up on weekends, meowing her fucking collapsing heart out, and when I wake up to ask her what she wants, she looks at me, confused at why she was screaming in the first place. And, yes. Her name is Bubba. And she's a female. (Er... neutered. So she doesn't quite have a sex. But originally, female.) 030301 ... Elvis the Dog 1975-1991 as a cat person and someone who once had a pet that stayed with me from childhood until recent years, i beg you... please put her down if she's in such dire shape. From the time i was 7 to the time i was 23 i had a dog, a doberman who i raised along with my cats, over time during the last month or two, i noticed how arthritic he was becoming and how it would make him wobbly and would even sometimes cause him to fall, and on top of that, he was eating less and less and seeming more and more confused and sad. time had caught up to my old buddy and i wasn't going to watch him go through any more pain, so i made him a comortable place to lie and put him in the back of my pickup truck and took him to the vet. I scratched him behind the ears the way he always liked as the vet gave him the shot that for once in his entire life he was too weak to resist. i kept on doing it until a couple of minutes after it was clear that he wasn't breathing anymore. Before taking him to bury him, I moved my truck to a corner of the covered parking lot and cried like a baby for a half hour my cats, Spider and Bob, spent two days looking around the house for him and refused to sleep in the big pet-basket they all shared It took a few days to get over it enough, and i still miss that damn nutty dog, but trust me, even though you'll feel like you could just about die when you do it, but when it's all over, you can rest assured you've done Bubba and yourself a great favor 030301 ... The Spork Spider and Bob, are still quite healthy and kicking, however. 030301 ... thefuddyduddy Elvis. The king lives on in doggy heaven. Thank you for your advice, Spork. Much appreciated. Bubba, although somehow still able to hunt down and mass murder bunny rabbits, birds, moles, and mice, has seen much better days. She's going in for her yearly examination soon. For this, I put her in a pillow case and twist it, carrying her like luggage over my shoulder. But we'll see the diagnosis then. 030301 what's it to you? who go blather from