Our 19 year old cat, Ember, finally gave up the ghost. Just a couple of months ago, the veterinarian was very pleased with how well she was doing for a 19 year old cat. She was still rather spry for her age and easily leaped up onto back of our couch to stare out the window at birds outside frequenting our bird feeders, including the hummingbird feeder. She was a beautiful tortoise shell cat almost entirely black all over with little orange highlights in her fur, reminiscent of a burnt out coal with a few embers still glowing, thus the name we gave her. She was very standoffish for most of her life towards everyone but my daughter. She shied away from everyone else, even family members, and hissed and batted away anyone else who tried to touch or pet her, and ran and hid in the back of the house whenever we had guests. However she loved my daughter, who could manhandle her and cuddle her in any way, and even dress her in funny costumes without hardly a hint of protest.One of her favorite games when she was young was to hide upstairs in my daughter's bedroom, waiting for my daughter to find her and bring her downstairs for her nightly cat treat. This was an evening ritual. If my daughter was too tardy in finding her, she would come to the top of the stairs and give a brief meow, and quickly disappear. My daughter would then go and find her and carry her down the stairs, purring all the way, to get her daily, before bedtime treat.
In later years, however, she mellowed and tolerated attention from the rest of us as well, and even began to crave it. A couple of months or so ago, she even let my two year old granddaughter pick her up and carry her without protest, which surprised all of us. In the last month or so, she became visibly weaker, and had more and more problem getting to the litter box on time. She ate very little, and seemed to want little more than to be cuddled and comforted. A couple of days ago the vet examined her and found tumors in her belly area, and that her kidney function was very low. They did not think she would last much more than a couple of days. She was very weak, but didn't seem to be experiencing great discomfort. This morning, she slowly faded away as her heartbeat perceptibly slowed and stopped, while being lovingly cuddled in my daughter's lap. We think (hope) she experienced a relatively painless death while knowing how much she was loved and appreciated. We will miss her!