What happened.
I put Berlioz, my nine year old cat, to sleep this afternoon.
He had a ping-pong ball-sized tumor obstructing his lower bowel near his colon. The surgery to save him would have involved cutting away a large section of his intestine and reattaching it to his colon. There was a very high possibility of post-surgical complications--that passing stool might cause a painful and lethal rupture. It would have been two weeks of enforced rest, with high risk of complications during and after surgery, only to be followed by the strong likelihood of further tumors.
If anything had gone wrong during surgery or even in the weeks full of painkillers that followed, he would have died confused and in extreme pain.
We couldn't even just bring him home and let him pass in familiar settings, b/c the tumor may have ruptured his bowel with its growth.
We made sure he was not and will not be in pain.
He was an AMAZING cat: lovey, loafy, cuddly, obedient, and always down for a group-nap. Bye bye, Buki.