Your Pet Loss Stories

by Martin & Liz Betts
(Cambridge)

We lost our wonderful 11 year old Amber on the 23rd September 2013. We feel such a big part of our lives is now missing and we are finding it very difficult to deal with, both my wife and I keep becoming emotional at any moment when something reminds us of her (and boy there are so many things that do!!).

She had been diabetic for the last 5 years so every morning she had to have her shot and I still find myself going to the fridge to get her insulin. 8 months ago she was diagnosed with tumours on her spleen which had spread to her liver but she dealt with everything that was thrown at her and never complained. She had also become nearly totally blind with cataracts and although this all sounds not a good quality of life for her, she was so happy as we worked from home and were with her every day. It is surprising how fantastic our lovely friends adapt.

We were totally in awe of her, as the illness progressed our main concern was that she was not in any pain and the vet assured us she was not. She was eating well, taking all of her treats and still being affectionate with us and we told her how much we loved her every day.

On the evening before we had to make that awful decision, she collapsed twice in the garden which was very distressing for her and the spark seemed to be leaving her. By the morning we knew it was time. We loved her too much to let her quality of life deteriorate any further, so we had to call the vet. We both told her how much we loved her and gave her lots of cuddles and that we would see her again. She went to sleep with us loving her at 11:30am Monday 23rd September 2013. We are both heartbroken but have taken some comfort from reading the poem below, please read it I think it say's it all.

I feel better to some degree now I have been able to write this in words and to all of your lovely stories that you have all been through the same emotions, God Bless you all and your pets you have lost and I look forward one day to seeing our lovely Amber again.