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3katz4me

A kind of morbid estate planning topic

16 days ago

So we met with a new attorney in our new state to rework our estate plan. We haven't updated it in 19 years and the friends ID'd to manage our affairs are our age and now 19 years older than when we chose them. Since we have no kids and no other relatives we'd want to be in charge (or burden with all our stuff in two different states) we are revamping the whole thing to be handled by a professional trustee (attorney). Fortunately we got a great referral from another kid-less couple we met here.

So it's all pretty straightforward but for the three cats. The current plan is that our estate makes a sizeable contribution to a specified feline rescue organization and they find a home for our cats. Ideally I'd like a trusted cat-loving friend to take them but that just isn't going to happen. I'm not sure if the attorney or DH mentioned it first but the attorney has had some clients who decide the pet(s) will get the kevorkian treatment when the people die. The idea being that life after their people die will be so traumatic and future care so questionable that they don't want their pets to suffer through that.

We are those people whose pets are their "children". So we'd be turning the "kids" over to some orphanage where they'd likely be in a cage for at least a while until foster and/or adoptive parents could be found. Adult cats...hmmm.....how many unwanted adult cats are out there in shelters and foster groups? And hmmm.....just how kind and loving is that foster/adoptive home going to be?

Though I'd never, ever considered kevorkian to be an estate planning solution I'm now actually considering it. Our last kitty to pass on did so with Lap of Love and it was the most peaceful, loving experience we've ever had with that. If we're blessed, at least one of us will live into our mid-80s with our physical and mental faculties intact and there won't be a need for such a thing (as long as I don't get any more cats). However you do need to be prepared for a worst case scenario.


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