“The least of these”

I’m not a Christian, but certain teachings of Jesus stick with me. One of them is Matthew 25:40, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” It’s true we’re judged by how we treat the “least of these.” This includes our pets.

Pets have little practical purpose in a suburban community. Dogs may be useful for security, but we don’t need them to help us hunt. We don’t need cats to protect our granary from rats. Our pets have been bred and trained for generations to be completely dependent on us and give us little in return except love and companionship. So we bring them into our homes. We feed them, clean them, groom them, train them, vaccinate them, and love them in return. And when the time comes, we say goodbye to them.

Today, we had to say goodbye to another of our cats, Gretel. Like Oscar, she succumbed to age. The vet found a large and inoperable mass in her stomach, and we had to make the difficult decision to put her to sleep. We gave her one last night to spend with us. We kept her as comfortable as possible and gave her plenty of love and attention before we took her to the final visit at the vet.

I think about what I’d want my family to do for me when I eventually reach that point. I filled out an advanced directive that tells them I don’t want any extraordinary and expensive efforts to save me if…