We had to put our cat Vito to sleep today. [View all]

[Tobin S.]

I've never had to do anything like that and it was one of the saddest experiences in my life. Vito was diagnosed as having cancer a few weeks ago. He developed a tumor on the side of his neck seemingly overnight. He had also lost a lot of weight. When Vito was healthy he weighed 14 pounds. Today he weighed in at 7 and he had lost nearly 2 pounds since he was diagnosed. We fed him his favorite rich foods over the past couple of weeks but he would eat very little. We decided to put him down yesterday pending the vets opinion. He said that if it was his cat he would put him down. The veterinarian actually cried after he administered the fatal injection. Vito loved people, and most people loved Vito.

Jen (my wife) has a big ol' soft heart and this was tearing her up. She got Vito from a no-kill shelter 7 years ago. He had been at the shelter for 7 years and we don't know how old he was when he got there. He only had one eye; the other was removed due to severe infection. He was also kind of mean at the shelter. Those two things probably are the reasons why Vito was never adopted. But Jen took him in and gave him a loving home, and what do you know? He turned into a sweet little guy. Here are a few pictures of me and Vito along with our dog Swifty taken about a year ago when he was healthy.

Just hanging out with the guys.


Here we are enjoying some premium brew.


Bye-bye for now, little buddy. We'll see you on the other side.