Goodbye Yoda

Yesterday when Ian and I were getting ready to go outside, I heard some thumping and bumping near our door. I went to check and there was Yoda, breathing hard and laying on the landing.  When he saw me he dragged himself up the last three steps and his legs didn't seem to be working.  I tried to stand him up but his back end just kept flopping over, he was also howling.  I thought maybe something fell on him and broke his back but there wasn't a big noise or any blood.
I called Ben, my Mom (who knows more about cats than anyone I know), then the vet.  The vet that we usually go to had only one on call and couldn't handle any emergencies.  I was pretty sure that we were going to have to have him put down so I left Ian with a friend who came to visit and told him to say goodbye.  I drove Yoda to the closest vet and brought him in.  The vet said that Yoda had a heart condition and it seemed to have spawned a clot that cut off the flow of blood to Yoda's back legs and he was in heart failure.  I gave the OK to have him put down and they asked me if I wanted to be with him.  Since he made all the effort to get upstairs to me, I thought I should be in there.  I've never seen this done before and was surprised at how quickly he went.
Here are some recent pictures of the cat who got me through my single years.