By Pops
This past week was a difficult one for Farscape Farm. While Thanksgiving was filled with fun and love earlier in the week, we were confronted with what every pet owner or farm owner dreads. And that is the time when one of your beloved animals has reached the end of their time, is suffering and needs to be put down.
We find these words like put to sleep or put down, but the truth is that we are forced into the decision to end a life. Granted, it is not a human life, but it is life nonetheless. And the decision is never easy. You try to balance the quality of life that your pet is having at the time. I’ve been a practicing surgeon for just shy of 30 years. You’d think being confronted with the suffering of a loved one would be easier for me than others, but the truth is that it is always hard.
Princess Sashi Yum Yum was our 18-year-old Siamese cat. We bought her as a present for Mesa’s mom who was living with us after the passing of her cat Indy. Grandma Baker had a pet for her whole life and Sashi was there for her last years. She was a very proud Siamese. Typical Siamese chatty catty. She loved to play fetch with hair bands and would do so until Grandma Baker’s arm was too tired to throw the hair band any more. She survived Grandma Baker by a number of years and moved with us to the farm in 2014. She was truly the queen of the roost. Unlike Blue the Siamese kitty, for whom I am his person, Sashi was a woman’s cat. She tolerated me to some degree and would graciously accept a pat on the head now and then. But she loved Grandma Baker and then loved my wife, Mesa. When Grandma Baker passed away, Sashi became Mesa’s cat, sleeping under her arm almost every night.
She started slowing down in the last year, getting thinner and not eating as well as previously. And then she became ill. Her meow changed tone, and it was obvious that she was in pain. The good thing is that she lived 18 great years and had only a bad last week or so. And really what more can you ask for in life.
I’m not an advocate of assisted suicide as a physician, but sometimes I’d swear we treat our animals better than our elderly. Sashi was like my mom. She lived 89 years, had a big stroke and was gone in just 2 weeks. She had enough time to say goodbye to those that loved her, just like Sashi did. Even though she was a “girl’s” cat, I loved her. She was our last link to Grandma Baker and was a wonderful pet for many years. And I would like to think that Sashi is with Grandma Baker playing fetch with hair bands until Grandma just needed a rest.
Thanks, Sashi, for gracing us with your presence for so long.
