Saying Goodbye To Jack

My cat of 17 years died last night. He was more than my cat though, he was the family's cat. Colin and I were watching tv after the kids had gone to bed. When Colin stood up to bounce baby Lucy, Jack stole his seat. :) After a few minutes Colin was ready to sit back down and he gently picked up Jack, scratched his head, and kissed him before setting him on the floor. A few minutes later Jack meowed and struggled for a second, then simply stopped breathing. We were down on the floor beside him; Colin held his face as he slipped away to the next life. I called a 24hr animal hospital but it was pretty clear there was nothing that could be done. Colin took him in to confirm what we already knew--Jack was gone. Meanwhile, I woke up Will and Elana (individually) to let them know what had just happened. Having experienced a loss of my own at a similar age, I felt it was better to wake them rather than tell them hours after the fact. We cried, we talked, we prayed. Colin brought Jack back home and I prepared a box for him knowing that the next day we would have a service. The night was really hard. Elana slept on the floor next to our bed. Today we took a few hours to say our goodbyes... drawing pictures, writing letters, and petting his sweet little head. We picked a nice little spot next to the screen porch to commemorate Jack. We laid him down and presented our letters and drawings and flowers. We cried together. We stood in silence together. Then we packed up our realized love with him and Colin and I took Jack in for cremation. Love you always kitty.