This isn't a post I wanted to write.
I've cried so much my eyes are swollen, and I have a busting headache.
Badger and I really thought we'd take Skunk to the emergency veterinarian, they'd fix him, and we'd bring him back home.
Well, maybe we could have if we could have paid a ridiculous amount of money.
We don't qualify for CareCredit.
We don’t have thousands of dollars just sitting around for an emergency like this.
The veterinarian comes to the car because you're not allowed inside.
She comes out and starts telling us he needs this, he needs that, and she can't do anything without it.
The cost is in the thousands.
Who could possibly pull thousands of dollars out of thin air?
Yeah, I'm really freaking angry right now.
In the end, she explained that without blood transfusions, Skunk wouldn’t survive, and even with them, there was no guarantee he’d pull through.
She said he was one very sick cat.
He had an intestinal bleed, and she didn't know why without X-rays and more blood tests.
It was possible he had stomach cancer or feline inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
He was very anemic.
He was dehydrated.
He was really low on certain vitamins.
The only one I remember is taurine.
We made the tough and heartbreaking choice to put him to sleep.
We were allowed to say goodbye.
He was awake, and he knew us, but you could tell he was very sick.
He was still actively bleeding, and he smelled terrible.
I'm not sugarcoating things.
I'm so sick and tired of watching my cats die because we can't afford all the tests the veterinarians say we have to have done.
We've lost three cats this year.
Could we have saved them?
Who knows, but maybe we could have given them a better fighting chance if we could have afforded the care they needed.
I’m not blaming the veterinarians. They’re dealing with rising costs like everyone else, and they’re trying to give the best care they can.
It’s heartbreaking to see a pet’s care limited by what their owner can afford at the time.
Sometimes people are stuck with choices that feel impossible.
It’s not that they don’t love their pets, they just can’t keep paying for test after test and treatment after treatment.
No one should have to choose euthanasia just because they can’t afford to find out what’s wrong or keep going with care.
There should be a way to pay over time so families have more options and don’t have to say goodbye because of money alone.
So we're bringing Chaos Lupine, also known as Skunk-Ape, also known as Skunk, home in a damn box.
I'm so damn over this day.
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