When that plucky kitten or frisky puppy first caught your eye, the need to make end-of-life decisions never entered your mind. But most of us will outlive our cherished pets, so most of us who bring companion animals into our lives will have to face the sad reality of their mortality.

It may come after years of warm companionship, or with the suddenness of an accident, or in the slow decline of a debilitating illness, when ain’t doin’ right is given a name like cancer or renal failure.  But it will come. Our wish for them to live forever is just a wish.

This blog takes its name from the question pet owners ask their veterinarian when they think — or fear — the end is near: Is it time? Time for me to make hard choices about the best care for my pet?   Time to prepare myself and my family for saying goodbye?

This project is meant to help you make decisions about this chapter in your pet’s life so that when it is over, you will not be wracked with “what ifs,” with questions about whether you should have done more, with doubts about whether you took action too soon or waited too long. Its topics include what to do when shared owners don’t agree, how to assess quality of life, how to assess pain, how to talk to your children, how to deal with your own grief if it interferes with your daily life, and when (or whether) to get a new pet.

There is a continuum of choices available to you, from doing nothing and “letting Nature take its course,” to hospice care in your home that is meant to allow your pet’s life to end pain-free in its own time, to euthanasia meant to spare your pet further suffering.

If it is time, nothing will erase your loss — and would you want to erase it? But there are ways to help you make the hard choices before you and to help you move from acute grief at your loss to fond remembering that brings a smile rather than tears.