Who Will Care For Your Pets When You’re Gone?

Make sure to provide for them

My cat, Opal, loves to be petted while I read

I was diagnosed with metastatic brain cancer in April of 2021 and was given a few months to live. This forced me to confront life and death decisions.

While I have thankfully outlived the original diagnosis despite oncologists discovering lung, liver, and bone cancer, I didn’t know at the time what the future would hold.

One of the first things I did — make sure I had an updated will to care for my elderly mother, who depends on me.

But there was also the matter of my pets. Who would care for them?

My Mom loves them, but would she want them after I’m gone?

Part of the issue is, could she care for them?

I know she can handle my cat, Opal, who she adores. I think if I pre-decease her, she would find comfort if she still had Opal to pet, feed, play with, and scold. My Mom has short conversations with her every day and I would hope she found that mitigated her loss.

However, there is no guarantee of this.

Then there is my dog, Snowy.

He is a 120 pound white German Shepherd.

An absolutely beautiful dog, but I only outweigh him by a few pounds these days, so he could…