Wednesday, February 13, 2019
A Final Act of Love
I know someone who has been helping to take care of an elderly man, living near her, who has dementia. Despite the best efforts of those who care for him, it appears this man can no longer live on his own.
That leaves the fate of his blind dog and several cats living on his rural property up in the air.
This brought up a memory I had not thought about for many years. Years ago, an aunt died suddenly in an accident. My aunt, who lived alone, had not made provisions for her two cats in the event of her death.
A kindly neighbor took care of the cats in the immediate days after the accident that killed her (which happened out of town) but then, decisions had to be made concerning the cats. Ironically, my aunt had done volunteer work at an animal shelter local to her. And her grown children lived hundreds (in one case, thousands) of miles away. But she never realized she needed to spell out her wishes.
I've been blogging recently about how my spouse and I hadn't updated our will in many years. We are between pets, but we may not have made provisions for pets, either. We didn't the last time we updated our will, and we had a pet then.
Yikes.
Have you made provisions for your pets in case of your death? If you (heaven forbid!) died suddenly tomorrow, do you know who would care for the pet? Or, what happens if you are in an accident and are incapacitated? Or are diagnosed with a serious illness? If you have, do you have that information in your wallet?
Does that person know he or she will be asked to take that responsibility on?
There are a lot of things to think about.
For pet owners, one of them is a final act of love.
7 comments:
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"Yikes" about sums up our position at the moment. We have to get on this.
ReplyDeleteJust don't be like Leona Helmsley- and leave your stuff to your dogs
ReplyDeleteA good reminder about a final act of love. We've not spelled out our pet plan in our wills but a couple of relatives have volunteered to take them should we die.
ReplyDeleteI actually have thought of a will for my family for years now, but I don't think my husband wants to think about it. I just think these are things we should plan for.
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't think of it in regards to pets and we do have a kitty.
I don't have a pet. My mother had this issue when her mother passed. She had to deal with her poodles. And another blogger just had her mother pass (I'm not sure if you follow her too or not), and she's now in charge of all of her pets. (They had discussed this before.)
ReplyDeleteIf you and your pets live alone, you should carry a card that informs hospital personnel that your pets are home alone.
ReplyDeleteAnd some fire departments give out window decals to let first responders know there are pets in the house.
We have to take care of our furry loved ones.
Good thoughts. I've always had a Plan B for the Cat Sanctuary cats.
ReplyDeleteI can see why people hesitate to ask. Some people seem to think that if anyone under age 75 can believe that they *might* die or become disabled, either we're contemplating suicide or we've heard some bad news from a doctor--"Oh but nothing's GOING to happen to you, IS it?"
Of course rural cats have their own plans. One neighbor's cat I'd agreed to adopt if necessary disappeared and adopted the humans of his own choice. Another neighbor's cat notified me of his human's (hospitalization, first) by adopting me.