I took her to emergency surgery, spent about $2k until the vet basically told me there was no point. They put me in a room, wrapped her in a towel, and brought her in for me to spend time with before we put her to sleep. I just remember after they put her in my arms she looked up at me and started purring and I couldn't have stopped the tears if I had wanted to. I'm not a fan of anthropomorphizing animals, but I like to think she felt safe in that last moment.
Even just thinking about it now gets me upset. What makes it worse is that the actions of my neighbor contributed to her death. I had to chalk it up to stupidity, the alternative would be an impotent rage that would do none of us any good.
That was probably 8 years ago, and even now if I talk much about her my girlfriend will start crying. They're just pets, and yet...