Wednesday afternoon, 2 days ago, my oldest cat, Sydney came over to me, jumped, or rather climbed into my lap, and started crying as she climbed.  I wasn't sure if she'd hurt something, but she lay across my lap and let me pet her.  Last night, she was visibly weaker, and having trouble getting up on the couch with me.  (Yes, they're allowed on the furniture.)  When I went to bed, she was sleeping on the floor in front of the couch.  When I got up this morning, she was on the back of the couch, as if waiting for me to open the drapes so she could look out.  She had had trouble jumping from the couch across to my recliner, so I picked her up and sat down with her in my lap.  She was limp and weak, and at one point,  I heard her cry as I petted her, but she didn't cry when I touched that spot again.  I decided to call the veterinarian and have him look at her.  It was a 20 mile trip, but uneventful.  He examined her and said that she was anemic, and dehydrated.  She'd been drinking on her own, so I didn't suspect that.  He gave her an iron injection and Ringer's lactate through an IV, and then released her pending the results of one of the blood tests that had to go to an outside lab for testing.  He also gave me a liquid morphine to give her twice a day.  When I got her home, I opened the carrier and let her decide when she wanted to come out.  I went out for lunch, and when I got back an hour later, she was lying limply inside the carrier with a foreleg stretched out s though she was trying to get out.  She was crying every few seconds, so I picked her up and laid her on the couch where she could be comfortable, and had to go to my occupational therapy appointment for my elbow.  I was gone bout a half hour and when I got home, she was stretched out on the couch, not moving.  She felt cold, and I couldn't feel a pulse or any breathing.  I called the doctor's office to let them know she was gone.  I went back in, picked her up, and placed her in my lap, so I could at least pet her until my neighbor came over to help me.  She started breathing,  but they weren't normal breaths, more like gasps that she'd suddenly draw and release.  They got slower and slower and finally stopped at 1:50 PM EST.  I hope she knew I was there with her at the end, because I had been afraid she'd be gone before I could get back home.  I buried her with a spray of autumn flowers in the garden in my backyard.  I'm going to miss her, even though I knew that this day would come, I didn't think she'd go so quickly.  Maybe it's better that way, I didn't want her to suffer, so a quick going was a tender mercy.