It's taken me 3 months to write this review. If it can lessen the heartache for even one person, it'll be worth it. After struggling for a while we knew it was time to send our cat over the Rainbow Bridge, from our home. She had facial cancer and was having difficulty eating consistently. We had gotten recommendations to call Moontide. Our cat was an indoor only cat who got stressed when put in a carrier so home was best.
We had an appointment for 11am and the morning was planned out to enable us to prepare, spend some quiet time with our girl, and then closer to 11am we'd quietly pick her up and take her into the bathroom, a smaller area recommended by the vet so she couldn't hide. (She was not a pickup cat and any time she sensed being picked up she'd run and hide- under a bed, in the basement, under a couch. We communicated this to the vet beforehand.)
We understood the assignment from the vet. Unfortunately that was not clear to her.
At 10:30 am while my husband was still on a work call and I was getting dressed, the doorbell rang. Twice. At this point, our girl ran and hid in a panic. She was previously a rescue and while we had her in our home for 8 years she was still skitzy with noises, strangers, and things like the doorbells. I texted the vet and asked if she was at the door. She was. She said she was "early". In hindsight I should have asked her to come back at 11am as scheduled. That was a mistake on my part that I will never forgive myself for.
I yelled to my husband that the vet was here, early. I let her into my kitchen. She made no apologies for being early nor did she show any compassion about it. I explained to her that we needed time now to try to grab our girl with a blanket, as she was running up the stairs and then down into the basement trying to hide. My husband got her and brought her into the bathroom and closed the door. At this point I was in tears. We had no quiet time beforehand. Getting her into the bathroom was stressful. It didn't need to be.
The vet gave her a shot to calm her and while she tried to walk around the small bathroom in a panic she fell and stumbled from the calming meds. It was painful to watch. All I remember is seeing the panicked scared cornered look in her eyes. While this was happening, again, not an ounce of compassion. No "I know how hard this is." No "I'm sorry I was early, I can come back at our scheduled time." No "Rey will be at peace."
After the meds took hold and she could not walk, we bundled her up, brought her to another room, sat with her while the euthanasia meds were put into her vein. Once that was done it was a matter of minutes.
I will never forget the look of fear in her eyes in that bathroom. I will never forget how we had to grab her and throw a blanket over her to get her to the bathroom because she was panicked and we were caught off guard at the vet being 30 minutes early.
If I could go back and repeat that day, I would have not only told the vet to come back at the scheduled time, but I would have chosen someone else.
To add insult to injury, we had a scheduled day to have the ashes dropped off to our house. I saw a car leaving my driveway and a box was left at our door. It was a few days earlier than our scheduled date so I was not so surprised when I opened the box and saw that someone else's pet's remains were left at our door. I texted her, She came back to pick them up and dropped off ours off a few days later on our doorstep.
It was the most impersonal, non-empathetic, non-compassionate experience I've had with having to send a pet over the rainbow bridge. The first two were at a vet's office and while I did not want to do that, it was at least a peaceful non-stressful experience.
If you've read this far, thank you. I hope you are never in this position. read more