While having a pet pass away peacefully in their sleep is undoubtedly best for the pet and all, it is very hard on every other animal in the household.
Because whenever I see one of the animals sleeping now (and the cats are cats and the dogs are elderly so everybody sleeps a LOT) I am constantly poking them or going “Brandon! Brandon, are you alive?” or “Gir! Are you breathing!?”
Fortunately Emily snores loudly, so she’s safe. Everybody else is having a hard time getting a nap in when I’m home. (Kevin is lucky that I generally sleep later than he does, because otherwise he’d wake up to concerned poking.)
I am totally dealing with this well on every other level but the animals are probably going to be glad that I’m going out of town for a week because this has got to be aggravating for everybody.
ETA: It is totally okay to laugh at this.
I do this to my oldest cat without having gone through a similar situation, so it’s very reasonable to me that you be checking animals for signs of life as they try to sleep.
This is a thing everyone does, right??
I spent a couple years checking to see if the elderly dog was breathing. I know this dance intimately. Detecting signs of life in a deeply-sleeping deaf geriatric husky can be a challenge…
I do with my wife when she’s awake. (She randomly stops breathing from time to time).