Goodbye Rankin

I came home from work today to find my eldest cat Rankin asleep forever in the garden. She was 17 years old, but seemed to have been around for much longer. She was a real character and we'll miss her very much. She suddenly became very old in the last week or so, and had been struggling for the last couple of days. Breathing had become an effort it seemed and I'm not sure how much she had slept in the last day. I was reluctant to go to work today, but my unfeeling boss is not the sort to be symathetic for pet children. I said my goodbyes to her before I went to work though which is a great comfort, and I made sure that she had a few morsels of tuna for breakfast, which she ate, despite being off her food. I think she had been waiting for us to go - cats seem to want to go on their own terms, on their own, and I feel like she had been holding on for us. I came home from work to find her lying in the grass in the sunshine and she seemed very peaceful, like she had finally been able to go to sleep. I only hope that when my time comes, that I will pass away so peacefully, in such lovely surroundings. We cried, and buried her in the garden in her favourite bed blanket. Life will seem quite odd without her and the others all miss her. Goodbye Rankin.