Edit: This is a particularly hard situation for me. I just got a call from my mother that my old horse isn't doing well, really since the weather changed coming into fall. She's willing to let me make the call (within reason) to put him down, but I haven't been able to see him in the last couple of years. I just moved cross-country with my daughters, am living mostly off savings, and have no real way to get back there to visit him (or anyone to have watch my girls while I take such a trip).
I hate that I let life get in the way of maintaining a relationship with an animal that was terribly important to me from when I was 8 years old until I went off to college (and even then, he was still at my parents' farm when I went back during breaks and summers). Sadly, time seems to not have a reverse button, and I can't undo the fact that he's 32 now.