(COLORADO SPRINGS) — A Colorado Springs veterinary hospice and in-home euthanasia clinic is expanding in the city to help more pet parents make the tough decision of saying goodbye.

Lap of Love says a day early, can sometimes be more compassionate than a day too late.

“They’ve just kind of reached their emotional limit and they can’t see their pet… going through what they’ve been going through for any longer,” said Dr. Alexa Spittler, on pet parents giving care to their senior and ailing pets.

Dr. Spittler is one of the veterinarians with Lap of Love, and she said she joined on because she had a passion for taking care of elderly animals.

“To kind of more directly be involved in the care of older animals and just help families kind of through that end of life care process,” Dr. Spittler said.

When a family reaches out to Lap of Love, a veterinarian will walk them through a quality of life assessment.

“We look at a bunch of different factors like mobility, appetite, pain, how well they’re sleeping through the night,” Dr. Spittler said. “We typically put numbers to those things so people can kind of see a little more objectively… how these things are affecting their pet.”

Lap of Love said it’s never an easy decision, but hopefully the assessment makes the decision a little easier.

“I try to help take some of that guilt off of them by just saying, ‘You know, if I didn’t think this was the right decision, I wouldn’t be moving forward.’ And I think helps them a lot, too,” Dr. Spittler added.

Plus, the examination and euthanasia is all performed in the family’s homes, in an effort to make it more comfortable for them and their pet.

“Also, even other pets in the household,” Dr. Spittler said. “They get to be there to say goodbye too. So that can help them as well.”