Pet sitting hell

**this all happened last Thursday**

So, being the good neighbor that I am, when one asked for me to cat sit while she was on an Alaskan cruise, I agreed. I've been checking on the cats twice a day, feeding them, cleaning out the litter box and watering plants. Yesterday I skipped the morning check because the cats have been great, their food bowls and water bowls have been no where near empty when I've been going. Josh had a cookout for his department last night so Alex and I went. When I got home around 8, I took Alex with me to check on the cats. I walked in and noticed a huge puddle of pee on the ground. I found one cat and she was fine. I walked to the back to look for the other cat and noticed 3 more puddles of pee. The cat was laying in the family room. I bent down to pet him and he barely moved and kinda whimpered. Alex of course wanted to pet him and he still barely moved. I cleaned up the pee really quick and called Josh to see if he could come help me. He was still at the work event and didn't answer his phone. I went home to change Alex because it was about an hour and half past her bed time. Josh came in right as I was putting her down so he stayed with her while I went back to Jeanne's.

The cat had moved so I thought this was a good sign. I sat down with him and noticed his paws were soaked as was his arm and stomach. It looked like he laid in a puddle of water. I looked around her house for her vet contact info and couldn't find anything so I called my vet. They had an after hours number and also provided the number to the A&M small animal emergency hospital. I called the hospital and described what was going on and they said I could keep and eye on him and if he started having breathing problems bring him in. I didn't have anywhere at our house I could put the cat and I didn't want to stay at her house for the night so I called Josh and he said I should take him in to be examined. He came over and helped me get the cat in the carrier and off to the hospital I headed. I knew it was a $125 charge for them to examine the cat but I knew if it was Cooper I'd want who ever was watching him do the same. The vet came out and told me the cat's temp was 90 when it is supposed to be around 102 and he was really sick, but they weren't sure what it was yet. About 10 minutes later they came back and said the cat is diabetic to have any chance of surviving they would need to start a 3 day treatment that runs between $2000 and $3000! At this point the vet wanted to know if we wanted them to start treatments knowing the cat would have a very slim chance of recovering and need to be on twice a day insulin shots for the rest of his life or not start treamtments and they would make the cat comfortable until he passed. How could I make this decision for a neighbor I barely know? I was crying and beside myself. We had no idea what to do!?!? There were a few possible outcomes...

we could start treatments, the cat could recover and when Jeanne got home we could let her know she has to give her cat shots twice a day and she owed us $3000!

we could start treatments, the cat could not recover and when Jeanne got home we could let her know her beloved cat died and she owes us $3000!

we could opt for no treatments so when she got home we could tell her Robbie died because we didn't want to pay $3000, to which she could say; you made the right decision or worse, I would have paid $10,000 to try to save his life.

She left me 2 pages of written instructions while she was gone, however she didn't leave me anyway to reach her, an emergency contact, or vet info. The vet came back and told me that his body wasn't reacting well to the fluids they were giving him so they had to stop them. He was in a lot of pain, they would continue to give him the best possible treatment but I should go home and try to see if I could reach her and they would call me in the morning. When I got home, Josh and I went back to Jeanne's to see if we could find any information about what cruise line she was on so we could get in contact with her. We found out she was on Princess and found a cell phone number for her daughter who was cruising with her. I left her daughter a message then went home so we could call Princess. They were great and gave me an international number to the ship and her cabin number. I tried calling and found out I didn't have international calling set up on my cell so Josh activated it. After several tries I finally got through to Jeanne, but the connection was horrible and she couldn't hear me. I walked back to her house to try from her land line and still couldn't get through. I checked her caller ID and her daughter had called back and apparently called my cell while I was trying to call out so I didn't know. I was finally able to get them on the line around midnight and relay the information. They made the decision not to start treatment and have Robbie euthanized. It was probably one of the longest nights of my life, one that I hope to never go through again. I can officially say, this was my first and probably last attempt at pet sitting.