only intermittently obedient

Today I buried her in the backyard, under the apple tree and honeysuckle.  She was 16 years old and caught a cat cold last week, so it wasn't terribly surprising when she laid down in the neighbor's yard and died.  Doesn't make me any happier about it, though. 

She was the last of my four cats.  Why four?  I had a string of cats who didn't live past three (hit by car, ran away, cancer), so when Little Face was 2.5, I got Youdere as a backup.  When she was 5 and he was 2.5, I figured they were both due to keel over soon, and got Emma.  Hetty followed the next year.  I went from no cat surviving three years to four cats over 13.   Now I'm back to none, for the first time in 20 years.