So sorry for your loss, @galenkp - it doesn't get any easier with time, you just kinda get used to it really...
We lost our lovely ginger furbaby four years ago when he was nineteen and a half. I'd rescued him when he was just eight weeks old, so we had been through thick and thin together.
It's so difficult to lose them, bit so easy to love them huh? Damn them. (But I love them). 😀
So true...I've always told myself that I wouldn't get another cat as it was just too hard when he died, but you are right, they are so easy to love...
Annabelle.