Back in 2011, I thought I was going to have to put my cat down. I eulogized her a bit early on this forum here. She badly injured her leg and we thought she'd have to be put down, but her leg was amputated instead. For the last 3 years, she has been rather immobile and didn't move around much. Also, her bestest bud died a couple of years earlier so she was lonely.
This was my kitten for 15 years. I saved her from some horrendous abuse, nursed her to health, and watched her slow down in her last years. Her last week, she was kept warm in a kitty bed by the fireplace. She hated being cold. I wrapped her up in her yellow blanket and her final moments were sometime in the night. This morning, I came down to see her body cold and her head stretched out like she was looking for me. And now I'm in tears. We rescued Cupcake when my daughter was less than 6 months old and Charmaine and Cupcake grew up together. Cupcake topped out one time at 30 pounds and her name was changed to Poundcake. Then we moved back to San Diego, and somehow she ended up losing the weight and went back to a small fluffy cat. She didn't have a mean bone in her body, she looked for love everywhere and purred the moment she saw a finger about to brush a whisker.
I'm going to miss that cat. RIP Cupcake.