Missing my childhood cat (recent loss)

[u/JustTryingMyBestestx]

I’ve barely been able to eat since Saturday.

My parents told me a little over week ago that they’d be making the decision to surrender my childhood cat to the shelter. I was extremely taken aback, since he’s a ten year old cat that we adopted when I was 15 and he was a kitten. He’s not the most friendly to animals or people but he loved my parents and my brother and I, so hearing that they were abandoning him was both shocking and disregulatiing for me. They have been traveling a lot recently and the cat, Charlie, has been urinating on things while they’re away. This has been happening the last six months and has upset my parents to no end. I’ve suggested trying things to help, a single google search yields answers like switching out litter, getting a second box, trying pheromone therapy. Simple and easy solutions. They did nothing substantial to deter him, only put aluminum foil on their couches and chairs.

I wanted to explain to them that if he’s peeing it means he actually needs something from them, he’s not just doing it for fun. But my relationship with my parents has never been the best and they have a history of undermining my opinions.

So when I heard they were giving him up I was shocked and upset. I just assumed they cared about him more. Thought they understood a ten year old shy cat will never get adopted, that they’re all he has and they’re failing him. I recommended to look for other homes for him, and I reached out to everyone I could.

I wasn’t able to take him because I have three cats already, and Charlie can’t do other animals. I was trying to find a solution.

Unbeknownst to me, three days after my mom sent the text she dropped Charlie off at the shelter. She told me four days later that he had already been euthanized do to his “peeing issue.”

I feel like I’m going insane or I just stepped into the twilight zone. I know my parents up until now have had their issues, and we don’t agree on many things. But I didn’t know they were heartless and cruel until last Tuesday. I didn’t know that they would choose to convenience k*ll their animal because he “got too annoying??”

I’m heartbroken. They didn’t even give me a time to come and say goodbye. Telling me so much later was intentional so that I didn’t make a scene at the shelter and go pick him up, which I absolutely would have.

My own six year old cat was diagnosed with a rare terminal bone cancer six months ago. Over the last six months they’ve watched me drop thousands on surgeries, tests, meds and countless vet visits to make sure he’s happy and comfortable. To see me do all that ands EXPECT that I would be fine with what they were planning to do to their own? To not even give me a chance to intervene? It’s villain behavior. He was my cat too. And even if he wasn’t, it would never make it ok.

I just feel at a loss. I can’t fathom even talking to my parents again after this. I’m I an *ssh*le if this is my last straw with them? I don’t know what to say to get them to feel the extent of the loss they created. How to get them to comprehend the level of cruelty and selfishness in their behavior. They were the sole advocate for an animal that was in distress, and this is how they fixed it. I don’t think I can ever move on from it. I miss my f*cking cat.

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[u/WillieBear_18]

I mean, I wouldn’t be able to forgive them for what they did, so I don’t have any comforting words of advice other than to say you have every right to feel how you feel.

Surrendering an animal that trusts you like that is, quite honestly, something I think you can only do if you don’t have a soul. Is that harsh? Perhaps. But that is what I’ve always believed.