Alas, poor Thomas.

I am afraid that Thomas our aged cat is at the end of his life and I very much doubt that he will see another dawn.

A scene from our local graveyard seems appropriate.  Urns atop a column are common monuments in Victorian graveyards. They hark back to Roman times when cremation was more common than burial and the ashes were placed in a simple marble box or pot known as an urna, from the Latin urere, meaning "to burn." 

The modern urn, when draped, is usually taken to mean that the soul has departed the shrouded body, for its journey to heaven