I just wish it were the same for pets. We've lost two cats to cancer in the past two years. There's so much they can do to extend quality of life, but not much in the way of actually extending their lives.
This is very heart breaking. I love my cat just like a child, he's my everything, and I spend an important part of my day, playing with him, taking care of him etc. Seeing him dead would absolutely devastate me: but being a 20 something, it's very likely this will happen sometime in my lifetime (my cat is 2 years old)!
Cats can live a pretty long time however. My grandmas two cats (sisters) lived from when I was 7 years old, to when I was 27 years old, and both died just months apart from each other. That's pretty good I think.