She sure was
Thanks everybody for your condolences. My birthday present to myself in 2000 was to adopt the oldest cat in the Guelph Humane Society, which was Linus. She was 8.5 years old, at least. I knew very little about her except that she had been waiting for a home for over four months. I had no idea if she was dog safe when I adopted Phene a couple of years later, but not only was she dog safe, she seemed to love them. I'd never seen her hiss or expose her claws to any living thing, not even Loca.
She had been sneezing and her left eye was watery. When I returned from Halifax Monday evening, the left side of her face was swollen. I took her to the vet yesterday, who discovered a bony tumour growing from the upper part of her jaw into her sinus cavity. The x-rays suggested that cancer had not spread to her lungs, but she seemed to be very uncomfortable, as she kept swatting at her swollen face. The vet said that her tumour would have caused considerable pain and her condition was going to worsen so I made the decision to euthanize her before her pain worsened.
She was a very special cat.