My siamese cat Dex (seen here in this pic: [link]) has been somewhat ill the past couple of weeks. Bloodwork suggested an infection, so he's been on antibiotics. However, he's dropped a lot a weight.

Found out why yesterday, after the vet x-rayed him: Lymphoma.

It's aggressive, and any treatment will be expensive and may give him a few months at best.

I know what I need to do. I hate doing it. But it's something that would have to be done at some point. I just would have preferred it to have been after he lived 20+ years, and not from lymphoma at the age of 8.

My ex was close with Dex, too—I've already told her. She wants to see him one more time, then go with me when it's time for the inevitable.

This isn't a new sort of loss for me. I've endured it in one fashion or another over the years. I just don't want Dex to suffer. And, there is that small part of me that hopes that if something good exists beyond this existence, then he'll go there in peace, joining Kit, Frisky, Pesky, Bonkers, Snowball, and Lilly, who all left before him in their own heartbreaking way.