Thank you all so much for your kind words. I really do appreciate this, as it was all such a bolt from the blue.
I think I'm beginning to see a bit of the light of day again, although these past few days have been extremely harrowing. Our life spans and our pets' life spans are incomparable. We frequently reach our eighties; cats on average reach their mid/late teens. Our cat wasn't cheated of any years, whereas that poor wee girl at Liberton High School was. I'm not trying to avoid grieving (goodness knows, I've done enough crying to fill a bucket!) but I am just starting to get things into perspective. For 16 and a quarter years, she was fine and happy - we were so lucky to have her. But life goes on - and meanwhile, our artist daughter is going to do a painting of her, from a gorgeous photo we took a while ago. That'll be lovely.