Dogs...

It happens. It's a tough one too. We had two cats, brother and sister. Brother was mine and sister was Kitty's. Mine died at 16 and Kitty's died at 18. That's a dang good run for a cat. They aren't pets at that stage. They're family and that's the truth.
So true, we have a cat, he is about 7 years old, he is real special, he had a hard start in life.

My wife found him under the front porch, when he was a little tiny thing, most likely not even weened, it was going to be the coldest night of the winter, like -20 that night, he might not have made it.

Anyways we kept him, made a kitty door in the basement where he could go in and out as he pleased.

He would take off for a couple days, but always come back beat to crap when he got a little older.
Ears tore up, patches of fur missing.
He always was small, but he liked to fight, and was not too good at it.
One day he came home with his eye tore out, took him to the vet, $750 later, we have a one-eye, no nutt kitty.

The kitty door went away, and he is just an inside cat now. But he is the most loving cat we have ever had.