This isn't the happiest of topics, but most definitely one I think needs to be considered, realistically. I'm 56, so I'm not quite there yet. On the other hand, we are both disabled, and bikers, and... well... we buried a couple friends, last month, who died together, on their bike. They were only a few years older than us. So, since life - and death - happens, it's something I think about, occasionally, and we have a lot of critters, now. The CCC (Current Critter Count) includes 8 goats, 11 chickens, 2 ducks, 2 guinea pigs, and 2 puppies. The oldest are the guinea pigs, at 4yrs old (which is at least half - 3/4 their normal life span), and next is our first goat buck, at a 'whopping' 3.5 yrs old. So, they're mostly all babies - and we're breeding the daiiry/fiber goats, starting this Wednesday. The general life expectancy of goats varies by breed between 10 and 19yrs, with the bucks outlive the does, sometimes by several years, and our younger bucks are only 6months old, so we could be looking at a 20yr commitment, there.
Anyway, what's weird is that two things popped into my email inbox, almost at the same time, this morning; notification of this thread, and my daily from Dr Becker, on this topic:
https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2020/10/25/pet-care-after-death-of-owner.aspx
A Christian & devoted Patriot, wife, soap maker, herbalist, formerly a homeschooler, baker, truck driver, and more. I was born in the South, but actually grew up around the Great Lakes. Both of my families had big, lush gardens,& preserved everything they could for the winter. I carried that into my own life. But, change happens and for over a decade, it just wasn't an option. Now, retired in the Ozarks, on 29 heavily wooded acres of mostly ravines, our best crops are nearly inaccessible wild blackberries, rocks, wild herbs, and ticks. We're utilizing our burgeoning small-livestock collection, straw bales, raised beds, and containers to build soil, and a better, healthier life for ourselves and our beloved critters, who provide us with eggs, meat, milk, fiber, fertilizer, tick control, loads of entertainment, and even help turn the compost. 
