Facing Your Fears

Fear is a funny thing - it seems to disappear for me when life is good. I am where I want to be as an owner of a small animal and exotics animal hospital, I have the best staff in the world and I love them like family, I come home to the best two and four-legged family in the world, and life seems like it can't get any better. As I am sailing along, I notice that something seems off with JB, my oldest kitty, but life is good so I am sure it is nothing. I play this game with myself for a little while, then the veterinarian in me (who already knows what's wrong) tells my scared owner in me that I have to take him in to work. I get his bloodwork back and I am right - he is hyperthyroid and in renal failure. Fears turn to truth. What do you do in this moment? Everything else in your life fades to the background and you know you are going to lose this battle in the end, but then you get all your strength together and start fighting. Even though I am fighting, every night when he curls up in my lap I wonder if that will be the last time, will tomorrow be a bad day for him and I will have to love him enough to let him go?