we have an appointment for late friday afternoon to let Stormy go peacefully, so he won't be in pain anymore. I don't think it's hit me yet. he's actually 18, our son reminded us of when we actually brought him home, not 17 so he's had a good, long life. He's been such a good cat and I am going to miss him but I just cannot put him through what I did to my old cat years ago, the keeping him alive just because I don't want to let go. H is really struggling with feeling like he's 'playing God' but he doesn't want to see Stormy suffer either. The vet said yesterday that just looking at him, it is time and the humane thing to do but of course she could not make the decision for us, told us to take him home and discuss it so that's what we did. we decided it would be better to do it now than wait and then have him get worse while I'm working 58 hour weeks in January. I've also been reading that it's much better to do it sooner rather than put it off and let them suffer longer.