My beautiful, sweet Lacy kitty is gone!

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My 13 yr old cat, Lacy, died today. Somehow she got some stretchy stuff around her neck very tight and it strangled her. I don't know how, as I was asleep. I woke up, noticing she wasn't lying against my head as she always is, but I thought, well, I did sleep late (bad night with my daughter)... I went to the kitchen and there she was, by the back door, on the floor. She was already dead. Her mouth was open, like she had been struggling. I'm a nut about picking up string, little bits of plastic, anything I see that could hurt someone, because my daughter is autistic, and I have two puppies, and 5 cats. I notice the tiniest bit of plastic that might have fallen off a package or something, since cats can try to play with it and choke. I don't know how this happened! Lacy was the oldest of my 5 cats. She's been with me since she was 8 weeks old. She was born feral, and a friend of mine fed and cared for her parents while trying to trap them for neutering. Lacy and her brother were their last litter before they were finally caught and neutered. So I adopted Lacy. She was a little feral, very scared, when she came to me. She was small then, and always stayed fairly small. She was mostly black, with a little white. The white on her chest was like a ruffle of lace under her neck, hence the name, Lacy. I still can see that little kitten hiding in the bathroom, behind the toilet, and when I walked in, she popped her head up and the pretty white lace ruffle and that cute face were all I could see. Lacy didn't stay scared. She grew into the friendliest cat you could ever meet! She loved almost all people. She would climb into any visitor's lap or up on their shoulder and just lie there as long as they would let her, purring away. But she was particularly in love with me. She followed me all around the house. She slept on/at my head. She stayed at the computer almost all day and night, when I am working at the computer. In the late afternoon (siesta time for all my kitties), she would sleep on the cable tv box, enjoying the warmth, while I worked at the computer just 2-3 feet away. If I took a break, leaning back in my chair, she would instantly wake up and come over to climb on my shoulder. For the rest of the day and in the evening, she would be wherever I was, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, upstairs, downstairs. Mostly that would be sitting on the end of my computer desk, rubbing her face on my hand as I tried to use the mouse, waiting for her time to lie on my chest, purring. All my cats are extremely affectionate, and tend to follow me around. Lacy was different. It was as if she knew that her place in the world was by my head, and she would do all in her power to keep her place. She made the saying "velcro dog" or "velcro cat" seem meaningless she was so steadfast in her deep love and devotion to me. Since I work from home, I am at the computer most of the day and into the evening. She has been my constant companion. Her name was one of the first words my daughter said. For a while, she thought all cats were called LacyLacyLacy. When my daughter was born, even tho Lacy had never in her life been around children or babies, she just opened her heart and loved my daughter with the same steadfast, almost otherworldly, devotion she had for me. Well, I don't know what to do with myself now. I am so used to Lacy being near me if not on me, I just can't get away from the empty feeling in the house. Later at night, while trying to get my daughter to sleep, I would lean back in my office chair, put my feet on the desk, and watch tv, with Lacy lying on my chest. I don't know how to describe how much different she was than any other cat. The other cats like to lie on me too. But Lacy had this way of practically melting into my chest, and making me feel so comforted and warm inside. She was so much a part of almost everything I did every day, that I find it so difficult to find something to do to take my mind off her for a few minutes. We have 2 big puppies, 4 cats, 3 rats, 2 finches. But the house seems empty and lonely without Lacy, the small cat with the heart as big as Texas.