R.I.P. Dinner

I laid Dinner to rest this morning.  I hadn't noticed anything wrong and was just going to fill up her food bowl but when I didn't see the usual shifting of the bedding as Dinner would run through her self-made tunnels to see what the disturbance was I suspected something was wrong.  I had been wrong about this once before so a part of me was hopeful until I saw her body.

Dinner lived much longer than her sister Lunch, who for some unknown reason died within a week of us getting them from Petsmart.  That was shocking and it made us fear for Dinner's health, but as time passed we knew she was going to be fine.  I believe we had Dinner for around 2 years and since that's less than the estimated lifespan of 3.5 years I have this general unease that I was at fault for this shortened life.  When animals don't communicate, can't verbalize in any way, sometimes we don't know when something is wrong.  I hope very much that Dinner passed without suffering and was not unhappy.  I cared very much about that little ball of fur, and so did the cats.