Lost the cat that I lived with, for much of my life, to old age about two years back.
You can't, realistically, develop a very personal relationship with them; because they don't have as much personal depth as a human. And there's only so much you can even communicate between each other.
But that also makes them feel uniquely innocent, because they don't have very complex opinions. They're just impulsive goobers, living the only way they know how. Which makes it easy to feel connected with them over time, because there's not much that can get in the way.
I don't like how the world has just carried on, as if she never existed. I want to believe the world won't always be this way.