Muscatine

 Sorry to hear about your cat Jack, but we decided many years ago not to have any pets after losing a real good dog.

LJ...you are absolutely right.  It's the unconditional love that binds us to our pets. We had to have a wonderful old dog put down not long ago, and my only regret that is, with his failing health and pain, we might have waited too long.  Very rough time, but you'll get through it. 

Jack, I'm so sorry to hear about your cat.  It's heartbreaking to lose a pet.

Hiroad, my oldest daughter's cat has appointed herself my 2 year old guard cat.  She will come downstairs and pester someone until we follow her upstairs where she'll sit outside the little one's crib and look from her to us, and then back at her if the cat thinks she is sleeping too late.  Like she's asking,"Why is she still sleeping??  Is she ok??"  Not something she was trained to do, she just does it.  the ironic part is she won't let us pet her most of the time, but the 2 year old can dang near rip her ears off and the cat will just take it.  That cat is definitely one of a kind.