Ways to Care for Your Aging Cat

Thank you for the post.

I am surprised you had to adopt your cat - I have three and they all adopted me. They are strays that just showed up one day and decided to stay. I like to believe they were sent to me. The one cat actually ran to me and jumped into my arms when I first saw her out on the road and called to her.

My youngest could be mistaken as a sibling of your old cat.

My kitty was actually a stray as well! I consider the day we officially made her part of the family her "adoption" day.

Though she didn't jump into my arms, she did seem to pick me as her primary human. It's a special feeling to be "chosen."

Okay, I confess - there was a natural reason for why she ran to me - she was near to starvation. She was so thin her face and head looked quite ugly, until she filled out again and became a very pretty kitty. She had obviously been dumped by someone, and she was desperate for food and knew a human would provide it for her. She had been abused too - any quick movement or picking up an object resembling a stick and she would run for a hiding place. She was quite defensive too. If you tried to remove a mat from her hair, or rubbed her wrong, she'd hiss and strike at you. Two years later and that has faded away. It was months until she would sit on your lap and let you pet her and even longer until a purr came. Now she sleeps snuggled up to either myself or my wife. There was a time when we had to be careful if we wanted to move her in the bed to a different position, or we'd get clawed. Now we just pick her up and place her where ever and she just purrs. People who are going to try to keep cats as pets need to learn some patience with them. They'll be fine friends if you treat them with love, not anger when they step out of line a bit.

My other two were not apparently abused, but the youngest one was so weak from hunger she could barely walk. Now she's almost fat. (I may feed them a bit too much)

I'm so sorry to hear of her unfortunate past! She's lucky she found you.

Very thoughtful post.

I too am a old cat owner. Mine is about 18 years old and still purrs when petted.

She doesn't play as much as she used to. I give her the Science Diet food ( Age Defying).

What food do you give your cat?

18 years! You sound like a wonderful pet parent!

I tried countless foods before I found one that kitty would actually eat regularly. She finally settled on Friskies. They have a special diet flavor designed to help prevent urinary tract infections, and that seems to be working best for her.

I feed my younger cat (4 years old) Science Diet dry food for indoor cats, and my old girl usually nabs a few bites of that as well. She can be kind of a bully.

That's a very good cardboard boxie, right in the Goldilocks zone size wise... I wanna get there too

Our previous cat 'Misty' benefited greatly from a glucosamine supplement. She was yowling in pain every time she uncurled herself, but within a week of giving her daily glucosamine she was fine. (The big C got her in the end... she lives on as my avatar)
Del

(cat pics, great way to start the day... prrrr prrrr)

If kitty fits, kitty sits!

Thanks for the tip about glucosamine supplements. It sounds like you took great care of Misty. <3

Having been long time cat servants (face it... they call the tune), we have found that as they age, they get even more selective about the cleanliness level of their cat box.

Our old girl (rest her soul) was leaving us presents outside of her box when she thought it was not up to her high standards even though it was cleaned often enough.

So... we found the answer. The Cat Genie... where we live, cat litter is sick expensive (flown in or by ship). The Cat Genie (I call it the Cat Crapper 400) is a permanent never needs changing cat litter box. It uses permanent cat litter that gets washed, sanitized, scented and dried. It connects to a water line and drains to a sewage line (we piped it into the bathroom sink drain. We never need to buy litter again. Instead, we use cartridges of cleaning solution, one cartridge last for about 50 washes.

She loved it... always clean, always fresh smelling and warm after the drying cycle. Has a timer so you can set it to wash once a day or more (up to 5 times a day if you have more than one lord and master). It has photocells so it will not start if her highness was in the box.

She left us 3 years ago... the two we have now, took to it like a cat playing with string. Check it out (no, I do not work for them - just passing on a great product).

Click Here...

Yes, but they do use the box, if clean, right to the end. On 7/22, our old boy was less than 30 minutes from his final breath and he still insisted on using the box one last time.