

All animals want to keep living, that’s literally why animals evolved brains in the first place, to keep their bodies alive for as long as possible. How can you, who is not the pet, say for sure they would prefer to die than keep living? You can’t ask them, and you can’t get in their mind to determine how much they still appreciate being alive. Even the oldest, sickest pet will still make an effort to keep themselves alive however they can: eating, drinking water, moving out of the way of danger, etc. As far as I know, no animal (at least the animals we keep as pets) have an instinct to just give up and stop going through the motions of life past a certain age.
While it’s not an instinct, I’ve known friends and family members who have had dogs and cats who stopped putting in the effort to eat and drink at the very end. At that stage, you know that it’s over…


Around a day and a half without any source of food, limited water and building my own shelter in the middle of nowhere. Would not recommend on the thirst and hunger side, but it was quite peaceful. I ended up eating a little bit of my flavoured chapstick, I was quite hungry and thirsty. Thankfully weather was mild so no heat or cold related issues shelter wise. I’ve been camping in tents when it’s gotten so cold that frost formed inside the tent, that’s not fun either. Once I made it back to civilisation, I had a long shower, drank lots of water, and ate two full plates of food. Almost threw up afterwards from overeating.