Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.
By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.
What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.
I wouldn’t say that I’ve lived a charmed life, but in the broad scheme of things, I haven’t had to face too many hardships or difficulties. Yes, there have been some lean years and I’ve had to deal with the death of family and friends. But far and away, the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to face is the decision to euthanize a pet. I’ve had to put a pet down numerous times, as I’ve had pets almost my entire life. In November of 2020, we had to make the excruciatingly painful decision to put our old dog to sleep and we are now facing having to do the same thing with our beloved cat.
It’s different with a pet than it is with a person. It’s not something you can explain to your dog or cat or whatever pet you have. You have no way to prepare them for what is about to take place. And while you can say goodbye to your pets, they can’t say their goodbyes to you. They don’t understand what is going on. One minute they’re here, and the next they’re gone.
I have tears in my eyes as I write this, and I consider making the decision to put a beloved pet to death as the most difficult, most heartbreaking decision I’ve ever been forced to make.
As you may have guessed, my provocative question today is…
What has been the most difficult, hardest, or most painful decision you’ve ever had to make in your life?
If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.
This, That, and the Other 
I understand your grief. I am sorry for your having to say goodbye
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s an awful decision to have to make.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It is heartbreaking
LikeLiked by 1 person
My husband’s funeral
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can imagine.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am so sorry Fandango.
https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/fpq-19th-january/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your difficulty (end of life for a furry companion) is something to consider when I think about bringing a pet into my life; that is in addition to the fact that my partner (ex-husband who I live with when I’m not at my house in Saint Louis) doesn’t want a pet at all. Now, for the big decisions that were difficult in my life so far… marriage, divorce (after over twenty-five years), getting back together; going an unconventional route for a surgery (minor now, in hindsight, as it turned out) for my youngest son; leaving mid-semester from the first university I attended, because of the difficulty living with the previously-unknown assigned roommate (she was pregnant with twins and with major health issues and had one of the twins aborted, as recommended by university doctors, while she was against abortion but saving the life of the other twin).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow!
LikeLike
Rather than repost other posts I wrote about about pets gone and greatly missed, I added links at the bottom of the post. We have lost SO many pets over the past decade and so many more over the entire 31 years we’ve been married, I don’t write about them often because it hurts. Even the ones who died many years ago still bring tears.
But I think other decisions were harder and more complex. When it’s time for your pet to leave, you’ve exhausted every possible other choice. When the dog or cat is simple old and tired, sometimes they look at you and you can see in their faces that they are only here for you, that they already know their time is up. I don’t know how they know, but they do.
You loved your pets. That is the best thing that could ever have happened to them. You gave them the best life they could live and now it’s time to help them — one last time. Now I’m crying again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry, but just reading your comment has teared me up, too.
LikeLike
To choose to fight for the right of a teenage foster child to refuse chemo for late stage cancer despite my strongest desire that she fight to live.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A very tough choice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here’s my contribution: https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/fpq-1-19-2022/
I have my doubts that it will be something you want to read, but maybe it’ll be okay. My sympathies are with you. Be comforted in knowing that you gave your pets a great life. They didn’t face hunger nor abuse, and that’s a huge gift in their world. May peace come to you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Somebody I had known for many years and loved dearly had done something very wrong, and worse they had hidden and lied about it, and there had been some very sad consequences. It took a lot of courage for me to speak to them and tell them that they ought to own up, somebody else was being punished for what they had done. My friend reacted badly and told me that if I was a real friend I would not interfere. I could not believe what I was hearing. I told my friend that I was going to give them until the end of the week to go and talk to the authorities, but then if they had not then I would have to. It was very very very difficult. But I could not see an innocent person suffer because my friend was not willing to take responsibility for their actions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did your friend ultimately fess-up on his own or did you have to go to the authorities yourself?
LikeLike
I had to report them. It was awful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Putting a pet down is an agonizing decision to make. The hardest choice I ever had to make was leaving my alcoholic husband after 20 years of marriage. I still loved him but could no longer watch him slowly kill himself with his drinking… he died just two years after our divorce was final.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very sad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes.
LikeLiked by 1 person