We asked our angels Hercule and Isis to teach us good advices on how to make an old cat happy. You know, we’re still young kitties (very young, Pixie, indeed), and we don’t have that kind of knowledge yet.

Here are their advices :

1. As we are what we eat, give your old cat good and healthy food, digestible, tasty, and easy to chew if he has some teeth issues. If you’re lost because there is plenty of different kinds of senior food and complements, ask your vet.
2. Play with your old cat ; he’s maybe not as fast as before, but his inside kitten still loves to play with you ! It will keep him fit too. Think of adapting the speed, the intensity and the duration of the game session, he shouldn’t die from breathlessness either.
3. The outside is getting more and more dangerous for him : your old cat can easier get lost, injured, or attacked : if it’s possible, try to keep him in a safe and fenced area of the garden, or inside if he accepts it. Hercule was fed up with freezing his bottom, and Isis didn’t like being disheveled by the wind, then they didn’t get out more than the end of the nose.
4. Make sure that your old cat can reach easily all necessary places : favorite nap spots, food bowls, and litter box. Adapt every access by removing mess, installing staircases or ramps to help him reach these places. Or be a full-time slave and carry him where he wants to go.
5. Let your old cat sleep in peace, don’t disturb him or annoy him. Don’t make him move or do anything, he’s too old. Moreover, who would like to be woken up middle of his nap ?
6. Some litter box issues may happen : put the litter box on an easy-to-clean floor, and forgive your old cat. He is as embarrassed as you.
7. As old cats are more likely to have health problems, go more often to the vet for regular checkups (several times per year) – Hercule, how can you make us write something like THAT ?!?
8. Don’t forget to give your old cat a lot of love and to pet him. Yes, he can maybe smell a bit because it’s now difficult for him to wash properly, yes, his fur is not so shiny than before anymore, but he’s always your beloved little furry ball !

Stephanie behind the camera

– Zorro … Are you old ?
– No, why ?
– And Claire and Momo, they are old ?
– Euh … If they were cats, yes, but as they are beans, we should rather say no during still some time, especially for Claire …
– Then, when are we old ?
– Look at this picture :

picture of International Cat Care

From 0 to 6 months old, you are a kitten : you think only of playing and of eating, and you quickly grow up.
From 6 months to 2 years old, you are a teenager : you begin to think in… I shall explain to you (or not!), and you eventually reach your grown-up size.
From 3 to 6 years old, you are an adult and in great shape.
From 7 to 10 years old, we can say that you grow in wisdom…
From 11 to 14 years old, it’s there that you’re officially old and that you decline little by little, it depends on cats.

– As our neighbor Bijou ?
– No, Bijou is 18 years old ; he’s deaf, he doesn’t have teeth anymore, he’s a little bit senile and doesn’t know how to return sometimes any more to his garden when he comes to walk in ours, he’s at the following stage there : with 15 years old and more, you are very old. Certain cats have no particular problem, they go simply more slowly, need for more tranquillity, while others are physically decreased.

– But… But… I’m losing my teeth, that means that I’m already OLD ?!?
– … *sigh*…