Your Cat’s Twilight Years

Posted by Jeanne on February 25, 2009

Throughout the seasons of the years this will be the pattern of her life — countless catnaps in the sun; countless mice slain and devoured; as many kittens as nature and her human friends allow.

In summer she will enjoy the lush fullness of the earth, watching with eye and ear the movement of the days, and patrolling the scented nights. The crispness of autumn will find her vigorously campaigning among the harvesting field mice and southward-flying birds. Her coat will thicken against the threat of cold ahead. On frosty mornings she will huddle in the pale sun, arising ever more stiffly as her years advance. In winter she will retire, a fireside cat, saving of the world’s warmth that comes her way, cowering before the bleak winds, reluctant in the snow, slowed down and waiting.

With all other living things she responds at last to spring. The heart rejoices, the earth turns green, the air is filled with promise, and even old cats roll in the new grass, dance the skittering steps they learned as kittens and climb a few feet up a few good trees.

To every cat at one of these time spans will come the day that is the end of everything. With luck, the cat will be properly old yet free of disability and pain. With luck, she — or he — will have lived fully, known the urgent, purposeful mating with tom or queen, and passed on the natural faculties of being cat to younger generations. With luck, too, she will have moved among people who cherished her, often for things she was not, but inescapably for the many honest things she was. And for having shared her good life, they will account themselves lucky.

It is a painful moment when the well-loved pet reaches the end of its allotted span. Much as you may want to prolong an old association, it may be that illness or infirmity is making the cat’s life difficult. Each cat owner must choose for himself the best course to follow, but it should be known and understood that modern drugs are swift, painless, and mercifully efficient.