Aww, this is such a sweet picture, and he most definitely looks content. It's always hard losing a pet, but I'm sure that this painting did help to ease the pain a wee bit.
Plenty of Kibble in Heaven by @whitefantom (Jennifer Pitcock Doneske)
This was actually a gift/sympathy painting for my favourite artist, Ursula Vernon, when her cat Loki had to be put to sleep. Loki was a very fat cat with diabetes, and he'd recently gotten even more ill and the vets couldn't figure out why, so after a while of watching him suffer with no end in sight, Ursula and her husband made the difficult decision to have him put to sleep rather than let him suffer needlessly.
Obviously, that decision wasn't easy at all, but what made it harder was Ursula's fears that, in whatever kind of afterlife might await him, Loki would be lonely without Ursula and her husband there, and he might not get petted and cuddled and given his favourite treats. She worried he might not be happy there, so I did this painting based on that worry, to show her that Loki will indeed be taken care of and fed all the kitty treats his heart desires until Ursula gets there and can look after him herself.
In the version I sent her, there was text on this image: on the top was written "This just goes to show..." and on the bottom, "...there's plenty of kibble in Heaven." I never actually saw what Loki looked like, so the cat in this painting is actually based on my own fuzzy tub-o-lard, Sunny.
(December 2003; painted in Painter Classic)
That's a really sweet sentiment--I remember when she put Loki down (I follow her LJ).
In addition to the expression, I like your use of soft shading and colors on his pelt...too sweet!