I'll never forget my beloved cat, Raven (Ravensthorpe) chose to lie down on my back door entrance mat when it was his time to die. I missed him by only 2 hours. I have posted this before, but I had someone coming around to feed him while I was away for a couple of days. She saw him alive, but he wasn't eating. Then I came home and he had stretched himself out on the mat. He and I had a very strong bond, and the back door was my usual entry into the house, so that was where he put himself. I lovingly wrapped his body in a muslin fabric I had and buried him in the back yard. He was only 11 years old, but he had a hard life. I rescued him because his first owners left him when we purchased a house, and I enticed him onto my lap, and kept him for the rest of his life. But my first husband was mean to him and chased him off the garden by throwing lemons at him from our lemon tree and chasing him with a rake. The cat was not allowed inside our house (by the first husband). But I used to spend hours with him on the back porch, and let him into the house late at night if first husband was not around. He had mange, and the first husband wouldn't pay for him to see a vet, so I treated that by wiping lavender oil onto it. It didn't really work, so I stuffed him in a bicycle bag to try to get to the vet's. He got out of a crack the size of a one dollar bill. I managed to get him to the vet's despite the negative trend and he got treated with the correct stuff and the mange mostly cleared up. In that first marriage, I had to do a lot of rebelling and breaking the control cycle. That cat and I were on one side of the divide. I am positive the cat knew he was going to die, and laid himself where I couldn't possibly miss him. I loved that cat so much.
