Expensive Veterinarians and What Happens When Your Pet Dies, Part III?

Recently another one of our pets, Charlie, died.  Charlie was a male, white Maine Coon Cat and he was 12 years old.  Charlie was not plump and soft and fuzzy.   He was always skinny, standoffish and ornery, but the 2 of us liked one another.  He was mostly an indoor cat.  Sometimes in warmer weather he would go outside for a bit, but not too far from the back door.  Recently he went out and did not return on his own.  Usually he would be ready to run back inside after about 1/2 an hour or so.  At one point after he left he came close to the back door when I opened it but did not come inside.  After 3 days we saw him outside about 20 yards from the back door.  My wife patiently talked to him and eventually she was able to scoop him up and bring him inside.  His eyes looked vacant and distant.  He seemed skinnier and he had not had any of his medications while he was away.   He seemed to be on death's door.  Had he gone away to die?
 So my wife took him to her family veterinarian.  Poor Charlie was full of maggots.  When he came home he could barely walk, most of his hair was shaved, and he had a feeding tube.  My wife mostly fed him for about 1 month.  He did not seem to improve in that time.  The bill from the vet was about $8,000.00!!  It started at about $1400.00 and slowly but surely crept up.  I thought $1400.00 was a lot, but $8,000 ultimately.!?  And then one morning I came downstairs and Charlie was dead.  So again what is a veterinarian's responsibility to counsel against such a bill?  Should Charlie have been put down immediately?  Was the vet only fattening his wallet?

How do you bury a pet?

Another pet bit the dust yesterday.  That's 5 in the last year!  Three dogs and two cats have died, all of them older.  They are all buried in my yard.  (Many cities/towns, etc. do not allow this.  There are pet cemeteries where pets can be buried, for a price.)  Tyler was a too skinny grey 18-year-old cat.  He did not look a day over 3 or 4 months old.  My brother-in-law dropped him off at our house a few months ago because he's fixing his place up for sale.  My wife guessed that Tyler was here to die, and so he did. And he smelled.  B.O.  And he meowed, loudly.  None of the surviving pets liked Tyler.  I liked him.  My 2 year old son loved him as Tyler would not run away from him.  Now Tyler's gone.  We thought he was ready to die a few days ago so we took him to my wife's family vet.  I told the vet that Tyler seemed to be ready to die.  The vet disagreed and suggested that we do some tests on Tyler to the tune of $851.00!  He told me this with a smile on his face. (My brother-in-law was listening in on the speaker function on my cell phone.  He fell off his chair when he heard the dollar amount.)  What do you do in such a situation?  Do you spend whatever to try to prolong your pet's life?  Should the vet tell you that you will be spending a lot of money potentially in vain?   What is right and wrong here?   My brother-in-law asked for a less costly option.  This came to $250.00.  I've heard that veterinarian pricing is going up and up.