Cats are notoriously difficult about revealing their true age. Except at the beginnings and ends of their life, a well fed, well loved cat can appear any age from five to fifteen. A stray, struggling to survive on the street, can seem much older than their actual age.

When I first saw RJ in the shelter, I thought he was a small adult cat, even though he was only four months old. He was so thin, with none of the baby fluffy fur, that at first I didn’t recognize the clear signs that he was, indeed, a kitten. When I did note the big ears, big paws, and hopeful baby expression on his bony face, I couldn’t help wanting to bring him home and get him to look like a kitten is supposed to.

In this picture, at seven months, his fur has grown in and his face has cheeks. Finally, he’s not only looking like his age, he’s acting like his age.

When we rescue a cat from deprived circumstances, we can find their appearance and behavior misleading.

A cat can act so shy we worry they will not be able to become friendly. A cat can be so aggressive we despair of forming a close bond with them. A cat who seems elderly might only be under the weather. A cat we think is grown can be young enough to still catch up on their potential when they get proper care.

I’ve seen it many times; someone adopts a cat whose vet declares them about a year old, and that “they won’t grow any more.” Such cats can wind up doubling their size in a year, confounding medical professionals. Cats have the ability to “catch up” when they are two or even three years old, with their bodies sensing the availability of food and refuge and responding by starting the maturation process up again.

This has implications far beyond the cat outgrowing the cat bed bought for their former size. If we guess wrong about the age of the cat, we can postpone a spay or neuter too long, expect too much of the cat when they are actually immature, or reject a cat for being “too old” when they really are not.

Undoubtedly other people passed right over RJ in his cage if they were looking for a kitten. Big for his age because of his Maine Coon ancestry, looking older than he was because of his bad start, they probably mistook him for a grown cat. People looking for a grown cat would have also passed by this sorry specimen who acted like a adult with problems, when he was really just a kitten with a lot of strikes against him.

Big kittens like him take their time growing up; RJ will not show his full magnificence for three more years, which is how long big kittens can take to fully mature. If his person didn’t understand this long maturation process, they could be expecting him to meet adult milestones of behavior when he is not ready yet.

Oriental types, especially the smaller varieties, can mature much earlier, exhibiting adult mating behaviors before the vet might think they are ready for their spaying or neutering, and this can lead to behavior problems and unexpected pregnancies. This can be confounded by the cat’s ability to sexually mature earlier than expected when they have to deal with adversity, as shelter kittens so often do.

So remember how flexible cat ages can be, and go ahead with the spaying or neutering once the kittens are over two pounds and otherwise healthy. Let the deprived cat settle into their new home and feel secure before we come to premature conclusions about their personality.

Go with the cat who already shows a character which pleases us, even if they are a “senior” cat, and we think they might not be with us as long as we would like. Because that is going to be true of any cat we love, no matter how old or young they might be when we meet.

Seeing him in that picture, it’s easy to guess that RJ is a grown cat. But he’s not. Don’t reject a cat or kitten just for what we think is their age.

Because what they first look like is only a product of our perceptions, which can change with our perspective.

They are, after all, cats. They specialize in surprising us.

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