Just started reading this post today and it is certainly is a tough one to get through. I just want to say that 4 Feline House, I'm thinking of you, and so happy for you, hearing of the great news about your job. What a wonderful, caring, thoughtful furmom you are to plan ahead so lovingly for your babies! But, as a nurse, I have to say, I don't like hearing you talk about how much time you have left!!!!!!! We all, in life, have no guarantees, but neither is any prognosis written in stone. With your wonderful loving spirit, and the incredible healing love of your furkids, AND modern medicine, anything is possible. Think DECADES!! As for "animal love." I read a post recently on this forum where the member stated, "I'm not one of those who loves their pets more than their children." I have several friends who think like this. That such love for an animal is wierd. They say things like "You can't compare it to the love for a child." Well, I do not have human children, so perhaps my perspecitve is different from those who do. She's right. I cannot compare it. But I do not believe that complete and total love and devotion for a beloved family pet and total unconditional love for a child, are NOT mutually exclusive. They are different, perhaps, but still very real. My furchildren, along with my husband, ARE my family, and I do not apologize to anyone for that. Like so many of you have posted, so often with the loss of a pet, people, even friends, cannot understand the depth of my grief. The usual platitudes, niceities, then, "get over it". I know how deep and real the love I feel for my kids who have passed is. Years later, sometimes when I am alone, or at night, I think of them and cry; a lot. I think of them all...every day, and still miss them. To my thinking, to deny that this type of deep love for animals is not valid, is to take a very narrow view of the human experience. We all come to this life with our own individual life experiences. I have known many senior citizens and persons suffering from illnesses for whom the love given to, and received from, a furkid, made the difference between dying, merely surviving and thriving.!! This forum is so great because it's members respect one another other in our need to love and be loved in our own unique ways! I know this is the place I will turn to for comfort and support should one of my kids' pass. And all the sad stories of the loss of the poor little guinea pigs!! Squeekie is my latest addition (a piggie) and now I'm already anticipating losing him! Loving is hard.