im torn on this discussion personally. i adopted a young dog from someone who could no longer keep her. a year later my dog isnt eating or wanting to do anything so i took her to the vet. turns out she had bad stomach cancer. this put me in the position where i had to either have her put down because surgery would be thousands of dollars i don’t have or i keep her alive while she suffers and her health deteriorates and life becomes unbearable for her til the cancer kills her
i loved that dog but for her sake i do wonder if she would have been better off had someone with money came along and taken her
i loved that dog but for her sake i do wonder if she would have been better off had someone with money came along and taken her
I don’t think this is a healthy way to think about your dog’s misfortune. There’s no way “having the resources to pay for possible future cancer treatment” is a reasonable prerequisite for taking on responsibility for a dog. You minimised her suffering and that is sufficient. You rescued her and you didn’t let selfish irrationality stop you from making a hard choice that she needed you to make.
You were the one who stepped up for her, twice. Not some hypothetical person with more resources.
i do wonder if she would have been better off had someone with money came along and taken her
Well yeah, of course she would have been better off. But that also most likely wasn’t going to happen. Rich assholes buy designer dogs for thousands of dollars from breeders, they don’t sully their hands with poor dogs from poor people. Most of the time if you’re poor and have a dog, that dog’s only alternatives are an overcrowded and underfunded shelter or the literal streets. She certainly wouldn’t have been any better off there.
Cancer is often a losing battle even with all the money in the world. Animals can’t really tell you something is wrong and tend to hide illnesses, so detection is frequently late stage.
im torn on this discussion personally. i adopted a young dog from someone who could no longer keep her. a year later my dog isnt eating or wanting to do anything so i took her to the vet. turns out she had bad stomach cancer. this put me in the position where i had to either have her put down because surgery would be thousands of dollars i don’t have or i keep her alive while she suffers and her health deteriorates and life becomes unbearable for her til the cancer kills her
i loved that dog but for her sake i do wonder if she would have been better off had someone with money came along and taken her
I don’t think this is a healthy way to think about your dog’s misfortune. There’s no way “having the resources to pay for possible future cancer treatment” is a reasonable prerequisite for taking on responsibility for a dog. You minimised her suffering and that is sufficient. You rescued her and you didn’t let selfish irrationality stop you from making a hard choice that she needed you to make.
You were the one who stepped up for her, twice. Not some hypothetical person with more resources.
I’m sorry for your loss. It’s gut wrenching.
Well yeah, of course she would have been better off. But that also most likely wasn’t going to happen. Rich assholes buy designer dogs for thousands of dollars from breeders, they don’t sully their hands with poor dogs from poor people. Most of the time if you’re poor and have a dog, that dog’s only alternatives are an overcrowded and underfunded shelter or the literal streets. She certainly wouldn’t have been any better off there.
Cancer is often a losing battle even with all the money in the world. Animals can’t really tell you something is wrong and tend to hide illnesses, so detection is frequently late stage.