Most of us know the pain you must be feeling, because we've all been there with a beloved companion. I suspect a lot of your turmoil is caused by wanting to do what is right in Molly's best interest and that involves facing decisions. None of us want to feel as if we've betrayed our animals by hastening the inevitable, neither do we want to cause them undue suffering by delaying it. I am also sad because you've grieved for her for eighteen months, before she has even left. It's over the dam now, but that time could have been spent by enjoying the time you have left together. Two years ago, I lost all six of my pets in a year's timespan. All were old, all died of natural causes. Hindsight is so much clearer than foresight and looking back on it the 'when' decision was so apparent, but it certainly wasn't that easy before the fact because I couldn't look at it so objectively when he signs presented themselves. It's very difficult, isn't it? I don't think I erred with two of them in the timing of euthansia because their deteriorating conditions were abrupt and apparent. However, in three others they were victims of those slow chronic diseases where one is want to use every means at their disposal to buy just one more day, one more week. Those are the hard ones you struggle with. And the last one to go I waited too long, and he went into his last struggle in the middle of the night and I held him to comfort him until the dispensary would open. He died minutes before they did. I should have and could have spared him that but I was hoping he would pass in his sleep. I'm not saying it's Molly's time. That is unique to each human and their animal and sometimes the vet won't even know, and mine prefer not to suggest when even if they suspect. I'm saying I know it's very, very hard and you will feel very empty. It's grief and it can be profound. You just don't want to compound that with regret and when the time comes....you will find the strength to do for her what needs to be done out of love. You've always done that for her as is apparent.

Ah man I am sorry for all of your stories. How sad!! In high school and in my early college years I had a horse that I used for rodeo for a few years. I loved that horse something fierce. She was a living doll. She was the most patient kind creature. I used to board her at my work, when I was in high school, and every day I would take my sack lunch out and she would come over and keep me company while I ate. She would also try to steal my chips. Anyways,as I got older and more experienced in rodeo (though still not very good) it became obvious to others around me that I needed a horse that could perform better. My parents told me they thought I should sell her and get a horse that was more of an athlete. I said I will not get rid of her she is to stay in this family until her life is over. I refused to get a different horse all for rodeo which I was never all that crazy about anyway. I quit rodeo and kept my horse. A few years later my brother and his wife found out they were expecting. They had some land and horses and I had been spending more time with friends, work, and school than with my horse. I felt like she would be a great horse for my nephew. I GAVE her to him for his soon to be born son and he was happy to have her. I gave him all of my tack and made him promise to keep her until she died or call me. He SOLD her a few months later. I was soooo mad and hurt. He promised she went to a good home, but has lost contact with that person. Not too long ago I emailed and asked if he knew how to get a hold of the person. I wanted to check on her. He emailed me back and asked me if I planned on buying her back and keeping her in my backyard! He knows how pissed I was that he first of all went back on his promise not even giving me the option of coming to get her. Second of all made a profit off of a gift. Third sold a creature that meant a lot to me and my family. He promised me when I gave her to him for his son that she wold stay in our family. She was the best horse. She would have climbed in your pocket if she could. I am still mad at him to this day. As I sit here and type this I am crying and mad at him. I bought her thinking she would stay with us forever and she did not. I am a believer that when you bring an animal into your life it should be for their entire life. Sorry I have no advice except listen to the other posters. Hell how could I give you advice when clearly I am still having a hard time letting my own issues go. Good luck I am sorry that you were so disrespected. Sorry for my long story I am long winded today!

We walk...next door...on Christmas day...and open presents, have dinner, eat too much, have coffee and celebrate the neighbor's birthday at 8:34pm (the moment she was born). We've been doing this about 15 years now. We love our neighbors like they were family. Jodi-

We offer first to family/friends. If nobody wants it, it goes to charity. My MIL was sure her house stuff was worth money. It wasn't. However, family members were happy to take the big furniture, so she didn't feel bad. Oddly, the various tschotskes DH and I couldn't stand, made her several hundred $$$ from an estate liquidator. Who knew, LOL? There is a wonderful charity here run by our city. They collect ONLY business clothes - cleaned, pressed, on hangers - suitable for job interviews. Low-income residents can go to their various training classes, which include what to do/not to do on job interviews and how to properly fill out job applications. For those attendees who don't have nice clothes for interviews, the charity allows them to pick two outfits for free. When my DH and I retired, we brought them enough to fill an 8' clothes rack. My MIL just passed away and I realized many of her clothes also qualified as "interview ready". DH and I cleaned out our closets again. His was clothes that had gotten too small or shrunk (he's fond of 100% cotton and some of that stuff shrinks more than others). I had hung on to some of my favorite work clothes, including some designer stuff, but finally decided after five years of retirement it was time to pass them along. So there went another 8' clothes rack out of the house last week! We also sorted through our books. We have around 2-4,000 books at any given time. Out went a load of those yesterday to the local library for their monthly sales. But the core of our collections remain: my art books, his hobby reference books, and the fiction novels we deem worth keeping and re-reading. Of these, only the art books are worth anything, and only to collectors. After I sorted through my art books we asked a couple of friends if they were interested in any that we planned to get rid of. They took two paper bags full. They were happy and so were we! Our collection is valuable only to us, especially since much of it is out of print. I used to give very elaborate dinner parties in the '70's. I had six different sets of interchangeable dinnerware and handmade bronze flatware, with lots of serving pieces collected from various places. Entertaining has changed and nobody does this stuff any longer. The main part of the dinnerware was a classic Mikasa bone china with an embossed gold rim, in a service for 12. None of my Millennial friends was interested in it, but fortunately one of our younger Boomer friends was complaining about her grandmother's soft-paste china. Such patterns can't go through the DW so she had to hand-wash it, so as a working mother (she was the breadwinner, in fact) it was too time-consuming to use often. She was familiar with our china and said she would be thrilled to have it. Made her ecstatic, and opened up space for new plain china for us. Yes, I still have the bronze flatware. Nobody else wants it, like silver it has to be kept polished or in bluecloth. Doesn't take up much room in a drawer. Oddly, one of the modestly valuable things I own might someday be thrown out by some relative who doesn't realize what they are. Back in the psychedelic '60's when impresario Bill Graham presented unknown local bands at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco, for publicity they did not only posters, but fliers and postcards. I have half a dozen pristine, unused postcards of concerts listing Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Cream, Moody Blues, Blue Oyster Cult, etc., stuffed in a box in the garage.