Only a little over a month had passed, and Bruce is doing so much better — yesterday he walked a kilometer at his own pace. If that’s not a victory, I don’t know what is.
It’s been just over two months since the accident that changed everything. He doesn’t need physiotherapy anymore. He can walk — slowly, but he walks. He’s happy, and off pain meds.
Two vets, at two different moments, for two different reasons, mentioned euthanasia to me. He is full of life and nowhere near needing it. And I’m very aware that I was never so selfish I’d have wanted him at all costs just to satisfy something in me.
One vet gave me the most expensive treatment for dehydration, adding that they didn’t want to “guilt trip” me — as if that wasn’t a guilt trip in itself.
Thanks to a friend who used AI to help me understand my options, I walked into the next conversation prepared. I brought those options to the only vet who didn’t try to sell me the expensive route — the cheap one worked perfectly fine.
If I have to say what to do: be firm. You don’t have to spend your savings to get your pet good care. I’m not a vet, and I can’t cover every option here, but I can say this — they take advantage of your emotional fragility. They don’t discuss options with you. They give you THE option. So far, THE option has always been the most expensive course of treatment available, even with no guarantee it will work.
I’m talking about a $15K surgery — one of the options I was given. That would have put me in serious financial strain if I’d said yes. I did spend a fair amount on Bruce, I won’t pretend otherwise — but I stayed inside the budget I set for myself, and I don’t regret a cent of it.
Bruce doesn’t know any of this. He doesn’t know about the surgery I said no to, or the vet who tried to guilt me, or the nights I cried thinking the only option was euthanasia. He just knows he can walk again, so he does — one slow, stubborn step at a time. Maybe that’s the real lesson: you can fight fiercely for someone you love without handing over everything you have. Those two things aren’t opposites. I just had to learn it the hard way, one vet visit at a time.
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