drinking, peeing, pooping - all normal. Just a bit subdued and maybe a bit of arthritis. Around lunch time I offered him some treats and he ate them, but then spat some out which seemed odd, so we thought maybe his teeth hurt and agreed we should take him next week.
Then around 7ish I went up to see him in his favourite spot on the spare bed. I lay down next

to him expecting him to come up and settle down on my arm with his face next to mine.
He didn't.
This worried me as Newt never misses an opportunity for a cuddle.
Then I realised that his breathing seemed laboured so I went to get the stethoscope. I coudn't hear anything!
No breathing, no heart!
Moved the stethoscope and I could hear, but instead of a smooth

iiiiiin ooooout, he was breathing IN out..... IN out....... very laboured.
So I phoned the emergency vet. She had us count the respirations and they were normal. She said that as his breathing rate was normal and there was no wheezing or open mouth breathing we could monitor him then get a regular appointment.
Or take him in as an emergency,
We took him in.

The first thing she said on seeing him was "I don't like that breathing. I don't like it at all"
Did we want an x-ray (no idea how much, it was £180 just for taking him in). Yes, we wanted an x-ray.
By this time he was just flat out on the table, barely moving. She was able to x-ray him with sedation.
It was bad news - a huge mass in his stomach, fluid on

[withOUT sedation]
fluid on his lungs, shadows all around the chest cavity. She said the only kind choice was euthanasia. We asked could we take him home for one last night with him. She said he might die on the way home, or he might pass painlessly in his sleep, or he might die fighting for breath and frightened.
We agreed that we wouldn't take him home

She had to go to discharge another emergency patient so we had some time alone with Newt. She gave us treats to give him, buth thought he woudl not be able to eat them. To our surprise he got excited and pushed himself up to eat some treats, but soon he was shaking his head and throwing them out of his mouth, then, completely exhausted he slumped down again.

It was such a shock. We went wiith an under the weather cat expecting to bring him home with meds. We had no idea that he was in such a bad state that we wouldn't be bringing him home alive. He was at the vet not long ago with constipation and no mass had been palpable in his stomach then.
I'm devasted.
He used to sleep on my pillow, over my arm, his face

next to mine. He'd stopped doing that when teh nights were hot and I was restless and had taken to coming to bed when heheard the first alarm having a cuddle until it went off again.
Last week, maybe Wednesday, he missed teh first alarm and didn't come to the bed till the next one when we were getting up. I told him he'd missed his cuddle. he didn't come

again. I wish I had gone back to bed for a few minutes with him.