coda said:

im sorry man, ive lived my whole life around cats and they become sort of children to me.  I become very attached to my cats and it hurts just as much to see one go as if i had lost a good friend of mine.  My (now) oldest cat murphy, my buddy that i had raised myself since i was in the third grade, is heading downhill.  He had a stroke last year and my parents found him lying in front of his food bowl unable to move.  Im really not looking foward to the phonecall i know im going to receive sooner or later, what makes it worse is im 1800 miles from him and i can't be with him when he goes.

My advice is to cherish the time you have left and spend as much time with your pet as you can.  Hopefully he/she still has some time left and you can do something to fix the problem.

Best of luck to you man.

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my cat i raised from a kitten since i was 7 is slowly heading downhill too, and im gonna be nearly in the same poisition as you coda, its strange you say exactly this cause those are exactly my thoughts.
he stays with the parents cause my womans allergic.

glad i read this whole thread, lots of for the cats.