The ethical dilemmas of daughter and cat-carer

[communicator]

Some of you might remember that 2 or 3 years ago I was looking after my parents' cat while they were on holiday, and it was pretty clear to me that it had diabetes, which they would not acknowledge. I started him on insulin without asking their permission. I thought they might not be able to cope with the injection regime. However, once I had taken

Comments

[fjm]

People don't always notice things in plain sight, because they creep up. Then an outsider comes in and its obvious. It's the "Only a Mother" affect.

[communicator]

This is a generous remark, which reminds me I am being a little bit exasperated with my parents, but as you say, from their perspective this has crept up slowly on them.

[fjm]

We didn't notice our cat getting sick, It was only when we went away in 2009 and left her with my cousin that he wrote to say "she's drinking from the tap". Even then we just thought "Cats!" but two weeks away and the difference in her behaviour -- from catching trickles to begging us to turn it on--showed up more than we might have realised had we been home.

[watervole]

And bear in mind that their own eyesight may not be so good these days.

[buymeaclue]

And sometimes it's very hard to acknowledge that something is going awry with a critter. I battle that with my old vet-phobic dog; it's so tempting to convince yourself that nothing is _really_ wrong when you feel like, for whatever reason, you don't have any good options for addressing it.

It sounds like you're making compassionate and sensible decisions.