Pets And Illness, Where Do You Draw The Line

We are dealing with a situation at my home that involves one of my beloved pets and their health issue.   I am not sure what to do, where to draw the line.

Here is the background.  One of my cats needs to have surgery.  She has a mass that is growing on the outside of her neck and after tests we found out that it will continue to grow.  Which means doing nothing is not really an option.

This is a stray cat we rescued 6 years ago, and sh

e is just as sweet as they come.  Luna, has not had any health issues in the past and she is really not that old.   We estimate her to be about seven or eight years old.   So, here is the dilemma, to remove the growth from her neck is going  to involve surgery at a price of over one thousand dollars.  (photo M.Harris)

I have many people that I have asked, and they also have pets they love, just how much they would spend and what amount would make them draw the line.  Keep in mind that even before surgery I have already spent  hundreds of dollars having her checked out.

I feel like a failure as a pet - parent if I don't have the operation done on her, but again it is over one thousand dollars.  That is what I keep going back and forth on, I love the cat but that is a HUGE amount of money.  So I ask you, where would you draw the line?