Sometimes you would let me hold your two little front feet in my hand as I fell asleep. You would purr loudly. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, you would wake me so that I would pet you. In the mornings, I would feed you canned cat food. Sometimes I walked on the treadmill first and you were very patient through all that but watched me closely with those intelligent blue eyes and meowed when I finished to be sure I would feed you.
Cats live longer than dogs.
Their life-span is on the order of 20 years. We thought we would have you for at least ten more years. Then, suddenly, over the space of a week or so, it seemed as though you were not as insistent about getting me up to feed you. We noticed that we could feel your backbone and realized you were eating very little. We became alarmed and thought you had some sort of obstruction.