Please be careful with this

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lkopteros

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I’m wondering if anyone knows why God allows great suffering in pets/animals. My cat of 16 1/2 yrs died this Sat morning. I live 30min from the nearest vet and really didn’t believe he would live 30 min longer but I was wrong. I’ve been a nurse for over 16yrs and I’ve seen people suffer but nothing could prepare me for what I saw Sat. My cat screamed out. He began have terrible seizures, wretching with dry heaves, losing control of bladder and bowels and his eye popped out. He screamed and shook and so much more that I won’t get into here. This went on for 2hr and 10min. It was absolutely horrible and haunts me terribly. I begged God to end it but nothing. I understand why people suffer, there’s a purpose for it. I’ve suffered with cancer and now another disease and lots of other stuff but I’ve always offered it to God, I’ve shared in His passion. But my cat doesn’t have that. His soul is mortal and there was no point, no purpose to his suffering. Why would a loving God allow this? I have prayed almost nonstop and yet still have no reason to it. On Sunday after Mass I asked the priest if he would bless my cat’s ashes when I get them and he refused saying there’s no point to it. Well, the point is my solace that’s all. He said it would be like blessing a piece of wood…well priests bless wood all the time, not for the sake of the wood but for those who use the wood as a cross, church, etc. What would be so wrong with that? I have had to lie to my family about the way my cat died because I can’t bear to share that pain with them. They loved this cat too. I told them he went peacefully in his sleep. I love them too much to have them know the truth. I don’t understand why a loving God would have allowed this. I just don’t understand it. If anyone replies please don’t be cruel or cold because I am in a lot of pain right now and I really feel no support at all from my church. I am truly alone with this one…alone.
 
I am so so sorry for you pain. I have been where your are on more that one occassion.

Just know that it will get easier with time.

I am so sorry.
 
Dear Ikopteros,
I find myself tearful reading your post, because only two months ago I went through a similar thing, only not quite as bad. My 13 year old cat began to have difficulty breathing – I called the vet – I should have taken her in right then, but they could not see her immediately. So I made an appointment in 45 minutes – I thought that would be soon enough.
I went to put her in the cat carrier and my dog pushed his nose in; she panicked and bit my arm so hard I screamed – she never would have done that if she were herself. On the way to the vet’s my son rode beside her and she put her paw out of the carrier at one point, he pushed it back inside. I want to cry thinking of that; she was asking for help.
When we arrived and I opened the carrier she wasn’t breathing. The vet tried to revive her with oxygen, intubation, and all they could do, but could not.
They don’t know what happened, but I suspect she got hold of a mouse that a neighbor had poisoned.
My dear cat, I miss her so much, and I don’t know why she had to suffer either. It has haunted me as it does you. The only comfort I have found is in C.S. Lewis’ book The Problem of Pain, where he has a chapter on animal suffering: summarized like this:
"Lewis then takes up what some might say is the most logical but also the most hazardous explanation, namely that 'some mighty created power had already been at work for ill on the material universe, or the solar system, or, at least the planet earth, before ever man came upon the scene.‘9 Because Lewis cannot resign himself to predation, carnivorousness and pain as the result of God’s direct will, he has no choice but to affirm that such things are due to Satanic corruption' or, as he later postulates, Satanic 'distortion'.10 One consequence of this view is that humanity has a redemptive role or might have had one. It may have been one of man’s functions to restore peace to the animal world, and if he had not joined the enemy he might have succeeded in doing so to an extent now hardly imaginable.‘11 This is a view, incidentally, taken up and developed at length by T. F. Torrance who holds firmly to the link between human and creaturely corruption and who postulates that it is `man’s task to save the natural order through remedial and integrative activity, bringing back order where there is disorder and restoring peace where there is disharmony.’
The other thing that gives me comfort is Christ’s words that God knows when even a sparrow falls. There is so much suffering in the world, among animals and babies who haven’t sinned either . . .I can’t account for it. I only know that Jesus would understand how we feel, and He still loved the father. When it gets too much for me I just try to stay close to the bleeding heart of Christ, without understanding, only feeling his love. That’s all we have in the end.
I hope your pain will diminish with time. Mine is getting easier to bear, but I know it will always be with me. We got two new kittens, to help my children cope, and they are lovely, though they seem to lack character next to my old Gigi.
Your priest was not very kind. I think another priest might have blessed the ashes; they are not all alike. But perhaps he has a reason for his behavior. It must be very hard to be a priest.
This may be silly, but I commend my animals’ spirits to St. Francis, who loved them. Maybe they’re not in heaven, but as Lewis said somewhere, “If not that, then something better will be true.” God loves his creation at least as much as we do.
 
I am another cat person here…
I am so, so very sorry for your loss. And to see your car suffer must have been so very hard for you, that I can not even imagine it…
The patron saint of cats & those of us who love them is St Gertrude of Nivelles. I pray that she will pray to our Lord to help to ease your pain & sorrow.
God bless you.
 
I am so sorry for your loss. When I was in a similar situation with my 18 year old dog, I actually got a beautiful lesson on suffering.

I too, could not understand why my dog was suffering since he did not have a salvific soul. It seemed pointless. My dad, who had studied under a great theolgian, was able to show me how my own soul was being purified through experiencing the suffering of my beloved pet. Many say purgatory begins here, in life. His painful cries were so hard to hear, yet when I looked at him in the light as a perfect gift from God, the pain was easier to bear.

In death my beloved dog and your beloved cat are fully united with God. In heaven we will have no new experiences with our pets, but we will have something better. We will have the full glory of God. It will be every perfect moment with our pets for eternity, and of course that is only the beginning!

Again I am sorry for your loss. I have no idea what the purpose was in witnessing his very painful death. But trust that God is all knowing. Since you have experienced this deep tragedy, He will bring to your life great joy. Trust in Our Lord’s infinite love and mercy.

My dog’s ashes urn is in my line of sight as I type this. You are in my prayers.
 
so sorry for your loss, it takes another cat person to understand, the only consolation I can offer now is what niece told me when we had to have our 14 yr old cat put down. Animals experience pain in the moment, but they don’t have the capacity to anticipate it, which is the cause of a lot of human anguish, and when it is over, it is over. Animals do have an animal soul, we don’t know the fate of that soul but presumably since only humans experience resurrection of the dead, it ceases to exist. However, if we will be in heaven for all eternity in our resurrected bodies, we will have everything we need for our happiness. We won’t have the same bodily needs our present imperfect bodies have, but if the presence of animals is necessary for our happiness, they will be there. I prefer the description at the end of the last Narnia book, the Last Battle, as an allegory of what heaven will be like with the animals we have known and loved able to converse intelligently with us and be with us.
 
puzzleannie said:
Animals experience pain in the moment, but they don’t have the capacity to anticipate it, which is the cause of a lot of human anguish, and when it is over, it is over. .
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I was thinking the same things as I ready the original post. Animals do not anticpate the pain nor do they contimplate how long it will last or why it is happening to them. The time thier pain lasts is a series of integrated moments. I think the pain they feel may be just as bad as if it were happening to us but the horror surrounding the pain may be less. At least, I hope so.

I’m so so sorry this happened to your beloved cat and you had to witness this. I’ve witnessed similiar happenings to my pets but your story seems particualrily tough to bear.
 
I just want to thank everyone for being sensitive to my pain. What makes this particularly hard is that not only have I lost a good friend but I feel as though I’ve lost my church. When the priest rejected my simple request it was as though God Himself was refusing to bless the ashes. I know my can’t isn’t in heaven because that’s what I’m told by priests. But I just don’t understand what would have been so bad about blessing them. Other priests have blessed my dead pets. Priests bless houses that don’t go to heaven. It wasn’t so much for the cat as it was for me I guess, and it left me feeling turned away by the one place on earth that I thought I could find comfort. Then, I have a spiritual director who I’ve been emailing like crazy with no reply. I understand he may be busy but one little line of sympathy would have meant something, some kind of solace from a priest to show me that the church hasn’t completely turned her back on me, but nothing. I’m heartbroken from the rejection I think even more than the loss of my cat. I really believe that the devil caused this suffering but I don’t know why God allowed it. You see the night before the cat died I spent an hour in adoration and I had never felt closer to Jesus than I did that night. I wanted to stay forever. When the Exposition was over I just wanted them to leave Him there in the monstrance so that I could tell Him over and over how very much I love Him. Then to wake up to such a contrast was almost more than I could bear. I don’t trust anyone with my cats but I told God right off that I trust Him with my cat and to please take care of Him, to please end his suffering. I prayed for St Francis to intercede…nothing for 2hr and 10min I bore witness to a scene that even Stephen King could not have created. It was horror at the core and as much as I try to stop the memory…hearing the cries, seeing what I saw, it keeps haunting me. I continue to pray. I continue to try to feel Jesus in spite of this void that I feel toward the church right now. I’m lying to my family about his death telling them that he died a peaceful easy death because I can’t bear to put someone I love through what God allowed me to go through. I didn’t go to confession for the lying because I intend to hold onto that lie for the rest of my life, I’m just not that cruel. Will God forgive me this, I don’t know but it’s a chance I’ve decided to take. I pray that Mary will console me, She above all women understands suffering. I pray she will help me. I’ve never been married and even if I were I can’t have children, I became sterile with the chemo and bone marrow transplant, my cats are my children. Maybe She can understand this, maybe She will give me comfort. I’ve prayed the rosary many times, maybe She can help me. But thank you all for your posts, they have helped a great deal.
 
I had to put my 17 year old cat to sleep 3 weeks ago. We had a special relationship as he had diabetes and needed an insulin shot twice a day. I feel so guilty as to how it happened. One afternoon he started convulsing and couldn’t stand up. I rushed him to the vet and it seemed he was in diabetic shock. He gave him some sugar and he was fine. He kept him overnight and ran some tests and he was fine. So we started testing his urine twice a day for his glucose levels and it was very strange. Most of the time they were normal. It was like the diabetes was gone.

The doctor told me it happens occasionally. Then Garfield started behaving strangely. He was urinating outside his litter box, he was eating very little, was depressed and was losing weight. I was on the phone almost daily with the vet.

When we go away we board Garfield with the vet. So this Saturday we were leaving for a few days of business and shopping. No sooner had we checked into our hotel room, we got a call from the vet. Gar had lost 5 pounds from his last visit and his eyes and skin was yellow. He was severely dehydrated. He was pretty sure it was liver cancer and to make a long story short he didn’t think he would make it till we got home on Wednesday. So I gave him permission to put him to sleep that day. I felt so bad that I wasn’t there. But maybe it was better that way. He was a Christmas present from my husband 17 years ago and he always loved to sit under the tree! I really do miss him!

Peace,
MSGirl ❤️
 
My prayers are with you and I’m so sorry for the loss of your cat. Don’t blame yourself for your pet’s suffering, he knew you loved him and you did everything you could to help him.

cecilia
 
:o I’m so sorry for the loss of your cat. It seems like your also having a “dark night of the soul” to go along with it. Dark nights of the soul are always so painful, but keep holding fast. God might have granted you such consoluations in prayer to help you through this very difficult time He knew was coming.

You might try reading some Theresa of Avila or her friend, John of the Cross. While many people like them at all times, I find I can only read them when going such things, then it helps.

Many prayers.:o
 
When man first sinned, the entire universe was thrown out of kilter. We have death, disease, natural disasters, etc. because of sin. Babies are born with diseases and die before they even know how to offer it up. These are the wages of sin and God permits them.
I lost a kitty to kidney failure when i was 17. We’d had her for 8 years and i still cry when i think about it. The only thing i can tell you is maybe contemplate Mary watching her perfect innocent son suffer for the same reason; sin. I know the infinite sacrifice of Christ is not even in the same universe as watching a beloved pet suffer and die, but i don’t think Jesus would mind.
 
johnnycatholic said:
When man first sinned, the entire universe was thrown out of kilter. We have death, disease, natural disasters, etc. because of sin. Babies are born with diseases and die before they even know how to offer it up. These are the wages of sin and God permits them.
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Yeah, that’s so true.

I’m so sorry for the loss of your cat. I know all too well what it’s like to lose a beloved pet.

I can’t understand your priest not blessing the ashes. We have a blessing of the pets every year on the feast day of St. Francis Assisi. If living pets can be blessed why can’t the ashes of a dead one be blessed?
 
lkopteros said:
I really believe that the devil caused this suffering but I don’t know why God allowed it. You see the night before the cat died I spent an hour in adoration and I had never felt closer to Jesus than I did that night. I wanted to stay forever. When the Exposition was over I just wanted them to leave Him there in the monstrance so that I could tell Him over and over how very much I love Him. Then to wake up to such a contrast was almost more than I could bear. I don’t trust anyone with my cats but I told God right off that I trust Him with my cat…
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Think of the story of Job. Why did God allow that suffering? Really meditate on that for a while. In fact, maybe pick up some writings from the saints on detachment. (Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis, or Preparation for Death by St. Alphonsus Liguouri…there are hundreds of others as well.)
I can relate with your sadness over the loss of a pet. When I lost my dog I was very sad, I cried and took the day off of work. One thing I did realize though is that it revealed my inordinate attachment to my dog, and if anything it should have been one more step towards a closer and more ordinate union with God. We should mourn the loss of a human more than the loss of a pet, and we should even more so mourn the loss of sanctifying grace over the loss of a human. How often though do we mourn the loss of God’s grace? This is a very serious revelation to our inordinate attachment to created things.

Pray for the grace to use this suffering as a means to bring you closer to Our Lord and an appropriate and ordinate attachment towards all things.
IsMiseSteise said:
I can’t understand your priest not blessing the ashes. We have a blessing of the pets every year on the feast day of St. Francis Assisi. If living pets can be blessed why can’t the ashes of a dead one be blessed?
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It’s about use and purpose. Earlier the OP mentioned that a priest would bless a piece of wood or a house but not a dead pets ashes. A reason for this would likely be because the blessing of the wood, a house or a live pet would serve a purpose, one of them being for the protection of that which is being blessed, or for setting it aside for a godly work (though this is usually done through consecration.) However, the blessing of the ashes of a dead pet serves no real purpose. The OP said she would like for the pet’s ashes to be blessed for her comfort, but I think it would be important for her to ask herself why it is that this should bring her any consolation as it serves no actual purpose. Blesing the pet’s ashes will not protect the cat, nor will there be any use for the ashes that they have reason to need a blessing.
 
The reason I wanted my cat’s ashes to be blessed by a priest is because my cat was very special to me. I think that people only have things that are special to them blessed. I wanted God and the world to know just how special my cat was to me, how I loved him. I would not want a picture of a cat blessed even if I like that picture, but a picture of Jesus I would want blessed because that picture would mean so much more to me than other pictures and I would want that picture treated differently than other pictures. There is no real purpose to have a picture blessed, it has no special use but it is special…to me. The ashes of my cat are not to me as the ashes in the wood stove or say ashes in an ashtray. They are special ashes. Ashes of a living breathing creature, a gift from God that meant a lot to me. I just don’t want his ashes treated like or thought of as any other ashes because they’re not…they’re special ashes. I justed want his ashes blessed to show God how important he was to me and how I thank Him for allowing me to care for this cat for 16 1/2 years. In the spring when I spread them on his memory garden they will help the flowers to blossom and somehow I’ll feel peace knowing they were blessed. All of my other cats were blessed, some while they were alive and some when they were dead and because they were blessed I feel like the flowers are blessed and they too are gifts to me from God…blessed gifts from God.
 
lkopteros,

I am so sorry for your loss. Just reading the first few sentences of the op were horrifying, and I didn’t even know your cat. Again I am so sorry. I don’t know what else to say…

Catholig
 
Ouch, this is a rough one. I, likewise, am so sorry for you - and for your cat. I went through a tragic experience myself when I had to witness and tend to my favorite childhood dog during the last hours of its life after it got hit in the head by a car. I know everything you are feeling. I have been thinking about this fishing for an answer that makes sense - one that satisfies my head and my heart. Until I come up with one of my own to share, you might appreciate some thinking of others that might give you some comfort:

jimmyakin.org/2006/03/bad_math.html

LT
 
lkopteros said:
I’m wondering if anyone knows why God allows great suffering in pets/animals. My cat of 16 1/2 yrs died this Sat morning. I live 30min from the nearest vet and really didn’t believe he would live 30 min longer but I was wrong. I’ve been a nurse for over 16yrs and I’ve seen people suffer but nothing could prepare me for what I saw Sat. My cat screamed out. He began have terrible seizures, wretching with dry heaves, losing control of bladder and bowels and his eye popped out. He screamed and shook and so much more that I won’t get into here. This went on for 2hr and 10min. It was absolutely horrible and haunts me terribly. I begged God to end it but nothing. I understand why people suffer, there’s a purpose for it. I’ve suffered with cancer and now another disease and lots of other stuff but I’ve always offered it to God, I’ve shared in His passion. But my cat doesn’t have that. His soul is mortal and there was no point, no purpose to his suffering. Why would a loving God allow this? I have prayed almost nonstop and yet still have no reason to it. On Sunday after Mass I asked the priest if he would bless my cat’s ashes when I get them and he refused saying there’s no point to it. Well, the point is my solace that’s all. He said it would be like blessing a piece of wood…well priests bless wood all the time, not for the sake of the wood but for those who use the wood as a cross, church, etc. What would be so wrong with that? I have had to lie to my family about the way my cat died because I can’t bear to share that pain with them. They loved this cat too. I told them he went peacefully in his sleep. I love them too much to have them know the truth. I don’t understand why a loving God would have allowed this. I just don’t understand it. If anyone replies please don’t be cruel or cold because I am in a lot of pain right now and I really feel no support at all from my church. I am truly alone with this one…alone.
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kopteros, I am crying reading your post. I’m so, so sorry for this very difficulty experience and the loss of your kitty.

I am also saddenned because I believe one of my cats may have gone through something similar a number of years ago. I admitted her to the animal hospital because she had been dry heaving and was so weak she couldn’t stand up. I thought getting her on an IV and antibotics would fix her up. When I called the vet the next morning, I was absolutely stunned to learn that she had passed away. The vet said my cat began dry heaving again and went into seizure and cardiac arrest. She said that it was very fortuntate that I did not witness it because it would have been extremely difficult to see and I would have been powerless to help her.

I don’t know why animals must suffer this way. I don’t have any answers. But I will pray for the Lord to give you comfort and peace.

Blessings,

petra
 
I have learned much here and thanks for the link to Jimmy Akin. Through much praying I’ve come up with my own thinking about animals and I believe that God loves all of His creations, one of them being animals. He gave us a great gift in the animals it’s up to us whether we enjoy His gift to us or not. I’ve never created something that I don’t feel a fondness for. If I give that gift I would hope the person I gave it to would take good care of it. If I made this thing out of love for this person then I would hope this person would love it in return. Granted this thing may not merit heaven but I would love it none the less, and how happy I would feel toward the person who loved what I had created for them. This creation would bring us closer. I have great news, I have found a priest to bless my cat’s ashes. You see, I know that the ashes serve no real purpose but they are special, they belong to a very special gift that I received from my Father, and I loved this gift from Him. So, once they are blessed He will know that I just didn’t throw His gift to me away. I loved it and I love Him, and I thank Him for the time I was allowed with my cat. He was born the day after my first chemo treatment and was with me through the darkest days of my life. God knew what I was about to go through, the pain, sickness and loss. He gave me this cat to help me through it, as a sign of His love for me. I took good care of this gift from Him and I want Him to know just how much I truly appreciated it. God gave me Little Bear when I needed him the most and if only because he was a gift from God I loved him. I love all the gifts that God has given me but let’s face it, people have lives of their own but a pet is with you always, a constant reminder of the love that Jesus has for us. A pet is subject to us as we are subject to God. Oh yes, one time an ironing board fell on a cat that I had years ago, he never went by ironing boards again so I think they do remembrer pain. The only pain an animal will subject himself to over and over again is the pain inflicted on him by his master…that’s love.
 
By the way, the pain we feel when we see animals suffer, well God feels 100 times more pain when He sees us suffer.
 
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