Thank you all for your kind words - I know you all understand. Sophie had a number of surgeries in her time, and was always well vetted. Toward the end, she lost one eye (she could not have cared less), had cataracts in the other eye. She had hearing loss, and dementia. But she always seemed content, as long as we were near. The past few weeks were tough, as she stopped eating. We hand fed her. She drank water and peed everywhere, but didn't realize it. She could do no wrong! I spent the last 10 years of my nursing career as a Hospice RN at a veterans' hospital, so I just went into end of life care mode. I gave her subcutaneous fluids, mouth moisture, eyedrops drops, position changes, gentle massage, etc. This morning, she started getting congested and using accessory muscles to breathe, and since I did not have any glycopryelate or atropine drops, I knew I had reached the end of my bag of tricks. Surprisingly, animals die very much the same way that people do. I was hoping she would slip away and die a natural death at home, but that doesn't happen often, does it? It is actually easier for me to deal with people dying, since I was able to compartmentalize in order to do what I had to do for my patients - can't have your hospice nurse blubbering all over! We do our crying in the car after our shift! Thanks again, everyone. Yes, 16 years and 4 months is a long life, and I think it was a good one for her!