Goodbye to a Faithful Companion

My cat, Simon, died today.  I'm still in a state of disbelief about it.  He had been diagnosed with severe heart disease at the end of last year.  He was put on a lot of medication and seemed to be doing better for a while.  Unfortunately, treating the heart disease compromised his kidneys.  We took him to the ER at UW this morning.  They admitted him and planned to keep him for 3-4 days.  Although his health status was precarious, there really wasn't any indication his death was imminent.  Then, shockingly, a few hours later I got the call that he died.  They think he might have thrown a blood clot.  They said it happened quickly.

Scott and I drove back to the vet hospital and got to see him.  It was surreal to see him laying there, lifeless.  We got to pet him a while and I kept waiting to hear him purr.  We told him good-bye.  I wasn't ready to do that.  Not yet.   

I don't know what I'm going to do without Simon.  He was my faithful companion.  He would follow me around, stare at me adoringly, and purr so loudly.  He was one of those cats that when he purred it sounded like he was singing.  He was only 11.  Too young for a such a sweet boy to die.

I found this post I wrote about Simon last year.  http://juliemj.blogspot.com/2011/01/loverboy.html

Below is a picture of him this past Christmas.  I can't imagine my life without him.