Glad you arm getting better TM as for for cat, it will be cheaper to put him down and train a new one. Yes I'm a cold baster, that what my wife tell me every time I try to put my cat down.
I hear ya. You can imagine the conversation in my head when it comes to those decisions. Really, since it's only money at this point, I'm OK with it. He's my little friend and I don't mind. When things start getting impossible and pointless, I'm sure I'll have to change my tune. My last cat reached that point, so the decision was pretty clear. He's just not there yet.
I feel you on the pet part. Last cat we had we probably put 2k into when things started going wrong with him. He wouldn't eat, was throwing everything up and was pretty much starving because of it. Had to put him down after four vets couldn't figure out what was wrong.
I'm pretty peeved at my vet. Really only should have "only" been around $6.5K, but after they messed around last week, they didn't diagnose correctly even after the 1st ultrasound. So they sent him home stable, but within hours started going through his death spiral again. I don't mind spending money for a good cause, but I just HATE wasting money. And that was $3.2K wasted over a few days.