My lovely cat is a senior citizen. She doesn’t really like to play with her toys or chase things as much these days (she’s on anti-seizure meds that make her a little unsteady which I think have made her play less enjoyable for her) so she spends a lot of her time looking out/sleeping in front of windows. But, whenever she realizes I’m about to nap, she gets super excited, jumps on the bed, yowls until everything is juuuuuuuust right (her soft blanket on top of mine but perfectly flat etc) but once we’re both lying down, she starts purring the with the fury of a thousand rusty chainsaws, regardless of whether she’s getting skritched. More so if she can get one of my arms working as a pillow.
So, even while her former favourite activities are falling off, we’re both finding weird moments of happy while I try to avoid thinking about the inevitable. And there’s something just so wonderful about hearing how aggressively happy she is just to hang out nearby for an extended period of time.
Don’t really have a point but we woke up from a nap and I wanted to share.
We have two that are getting up there in age. They’re both active, but the signs are there. One has irritable bowel syndrome and asthma is on medication for both. His black fur has faded in some spots, too - not much, but there are definitely spots that are a bit more brown in his legs.
The other seems healthy, but his urine had some protein and there is a slightly elevated number in his bloodwork for his liver (I think). The vet isn’t sure what those mean yet, and they want him to get an ultrasound (they just told us yesterday, and we haven’t had the chance to schedule it yet).
It’s possible he also has IBS, which would at least mean we’re used to dealing with it. He’s already eating the right food.
Odds are good we have years with them yet, but it’s a sign they’re getting older, and a reminder that some day they’ll be gone. :(
One of the many reasons I don’t want to own a pet is saying goodbye. I hope you both get to enjoy each other’s company for a long time yet.
Having someone around that’s as close as a family member more than makes up for that.
The goodbye is painful, but the hello to a new kitten is equally sweet.
Personally, I didn’t find this to be true. But I think the lifetime spent before the goodbye was worth all of the pain, as awful as it is. The hello to a new kitten was sweet and helped me think less frequently about the pain, but it wasn’t nearly equal to the pain of losing the old one.
That said, the girl I lost was without a doubt my soul pet. We spent 20 years together and losing her tore a hole in both my heart and soul. And yet I wouldn’t give up a single day I had with her if it would lessen the pain I have felt over the last 7 months since losing her.
I adopted a sweet new kitten about 3 months in and I am so glad I did. She’s wonderful and I think there’s a chance I got lucky and will have two soul pets in my life. But the joy of meeting her and getting to build a new relationship only makes me think less frequently of the pain of my loss, not feel it any less.
In no way did I mean to insinuate that a new adoption dulls the pain. I agree there’s always room for more love in life; it’s the ultimate renewable resource.
My partner spent twenty years with her soul pet, and I was lucky enough to share fourteen of those years. He was such a part of our lives that five years later we still regularly accidentally call his little nephew, now the patron of the house, by his name.
Pets help us understand our own mortality in ways that continue to surprise me. When I was young, the first pet I lost was a young cat, just a few years old. I raised her from a kitten that was probably too young to ween so we had a close bond. She was indoor/outdoor and was attacked by a neighbor’s dog during the day when I was gone. Holding her and watching her die broke me, like she waited all day to die in my arms. She was mine and I felt like I let her down. Woof, it hurt. Still does.
But while I was holding her, our family dog (Allison) was next to me. She was older than I was, a feisty Lhasa Apso that had lost her ability to hold her bladder. We diapered her: we’d cut a hole in human diapers to pull her tail through to keep the hardwoods from getting ruined. She died a year later, after living a full life.
I buried both of them in the front yard, under a couple of pines that bordered our neighbor’s pet cemetery. Both times, digging those holes gave me the time I needed to be able to return them to the earth and say goodbye. I learned so much from their passing. It is the last gift our pets give us, their final act of love.
Now, older, with kids of my own, we have Sadie, who I am looking at as I write this. She’s a rescue, probably a golden mixed with some border collie, at least 16 years old. Her sister died last year and it was the first close death my kids experienced. Her passing taught my kids the alchemy of aging gracefully, the privilege of old age. Now, they find charm in Sadie’s rickety hips and excuse her incontinence. Getting old is okay; we are lucky to be able to do it. Watching your loved ones get old is a privilege we should cherish.
Edit: I wanted to thank OP for posting this. Reading your observations of your aging cat brought It all forward.
Our girl is 16 and she has arthritis and some sinus/breathing issues.
She’s been doing laser treatments for arthritis and it’s been working very well. The other day she came up to me and meowed to indicate she wanted to play, then she ran down the stairs after me and she went full out for like 20 minutes, just playing like she was 10 years younger.
I stopped to text my wife a picture and she (the cat) yowled at me until I went back to playing.
It was the most fulfilling play session, it’s been impossible to get her to go after toys and she’s been so lethargic and guarded for a long time.
Awwww, that sounds almost magical to have watched, really glad for all of you.
Thank you for sharing, it made me smile. My senior citizen cat (he’ll be 18 in less than 2 months) also now wants my arm as his pillow and lets me know, loudly, if he’s ready but my arm isn’t in the right “spot” yet.
Similarly, in the last few of her 20 years of life, my kitty picked up a new ”requirements” on how we slept. It started with her wanting to be in my arms, and she’d paw at me during the night until I woke up and wrapped my arms around her. Given her inability to communicate her desires, it took a couple weeks of significantly disrupted sleep to learn that’s what she wanted!
That continued but she also began pawing for things such as: 1) lifting the blanket so she could go under it, 2) laying on my back so she could rest her head on my hip, and 3) rolling to face her. The last was the funniest as she developed it only in her final two years. She just couldn’t bear me facing away from her even while I slept!
I lost so much sleep meeting that cat’s needs, lol. And it was worth every second of it.
I know how you feel. 20 years of what sounds like a great life for your cat, and you got to share it with her. So far the arm pillow is his only requirement. My cat has no problem waking me up when my arm pillow isn’t available. At this point making room for him and moving my arm to the proper spot is on autopilot and I’m able to quickly fall back to sleep once he settles in.
Glad it made you smile! Also glad I’m not the only one who gets reprimanded for laying out an arm incorrectly!
Do you also get the loud, drawn out sigh if you take too long to properly arrange your arm? It’s like I can hear him thinking “took you long enough.”
Going through the same with my dog. She’s been with me since before I even started dating my wife. I’m gonna miss her.
My wife and I had an older gentleman cat. He would wake us up at night (sleeping between the two of us) to get us to carry him with us and go lie down on the couch, where he’d curl up on top of whoever he picked that night and go back to sleep.
Cherish your old girl!
Now that’d be super cute to catch on video
I’ll see if I can make it work sometime.
How dare you
I live to apologize to her.
