Sir Nigel

I've never had to experience a death in the family or in my circle of friends. I've been lucky, so far, in that respect.
So it is strange waiting for Nigel to die at any moment. Yes, he is a cat and...this seems kind of frivolous, but the whole family treats him like another person. We coddle him constantly. The rapid growth and spread of the tumor caught us by surprise and now we're preparing for something that I thought wouldn't come for another 10 years.
So far I've had little trouble in compartmentalizing my surprise and sadness. I hate crying because it hurts to think about the fact that his time is approaching. I am trying to focus on him now and not as he won't be in the future.
Sometimes I wonder what I am getting upset about. I am definitely upset that he will soon be gone from my life. I am sad that he may be suffering. But I am also sad that life is going so fast that when I look back on my existence so far, it happened in the blink of an eye. There were times where I would sit with my cat and think, "He won't live forever. I should enjoy his company." And now that time is approaching rapidly and it is so strange. I guess I can also see my own ephemeral life and how things are constantly changing and that it is absolutely futile to expect things to last forever.
I am trying to take a Buddhist outlook on all of this, trying to detach myself so that it doesn't hurt as much. I am slicing off parts of my brain, myself, so that I can accept life and its lack of permanence.