We had many great years together

On 03-12-2024 I brought him to the vet due primarily to labored breathing, increased congested coughing, complications with his front paws, and lethargy. He was unusually quiet the entire way there and when I got there I noticed his breathing was labored again. When I walked in, they took him for triage, his saturation was only 86. They put him in an oxygen box for 40 min or so and then took an xray. The vet said he has so much fluid around his lungs she could not view his heart, but was sure he was in heart failure and in critical condition. The stress of the trip must have intensified the condition. I was in shock, not having any idea it was that bad. She said his previous heart murmur was now much, much worse. Given his other major problems and symptoms- existing congestion, medication, orthopedic situation, severe allergies, possible tumor on leg, and neurological twitch, coupled with his age, his prognosis was poor regardless of interventions and said euthanasia would be reasonable. I wasn’t quite prepared to hear that, thinking his issue was a chest infection, but thought about it and later agreed that it would be pointless to put him through days or weeks of trauma for what would likely be a poor outcome at best. They brought him to me and was he a bit agitated and panting, but quickly calmed down when I embraced and talked to him and he started purring. I said my goodbyes with him for about 40 min, they started the procedure and he died very peacefully at around 7:20pm at age 13.75.

Zachary was, in many ways, the most wonderful cat of my life. I had a strong and special bond with him and will miss him terribly. He was incredibly sweet, loving, docile, smart, inttuitive, and interactive. Having just lost Kira only 6 months ago made it even that much worse, now being completely alone for the first time since I lost Penelope over 27 years ago. Unfortunately, he had lots of health problems from age 6, including a severe skin allergy (that left him in a cone 24/7 over an entire year), GI issues, and the inability to fight off FVR/FVH-1 which caused lots of never-ending cycles of significant issues for several years. Tons of trials and tests and procedures, many thousands of doses of various medications, but he seemed to always pull through. Despite all those setbacks, I think he still led a happy life and certainly enriched mine a lot.