From my stepmom Darla:

This is a note to all of you who knew and loved Samantha. She died peacefully at home this afternoon. She was 18 years old.

She’d been losing a great deal of weight lately, and the vet said it was most likely cancer. That was a couple of weeks ago, so I spoiled her rotten for two weeks: she lived on wet food, cat treats and people food, and spent most of her time sleeping on my lap. She was eating until yesterday, and purring when I stroked her until yesterday evening, but after tottering to the litter box last night, she curled up on the electric blanket on my bed and didn’t move from there. I stayed with her until she died there, about an hour ago. She’ll be buried in the back yard.

Goodbye, quirky, bossy, loving friend. I’ll miss you.