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When we have a great relationship, it is always difficult to accept that it has to come to an end. Why can’t cats live as long as we do?
The scientific answer is that cats are not programmed to do so. Cats rely on their cunning, but they also need speed and stamina. As a predator, they do not spend their later years in rocking chairs; unless we provide them.
So the good scientific news is that care as our pets means cats live probably twice as long as they would in nature; and much longer than ferals or strays. After all, no cats live in the wild in developed countries; they live in the world we have made.
So there is some impact we can make on this span; by seeing to their medical needs, feeding them properly, making them active and happy, and keeping them indoors, away from attack, accidents, and disease. Studies suggest that on average, the indoor-only cat can expect ten more years than the outdoor cat.
The philosophical answer is more complex. Animal lifespans vary widely; just days for some insect forms, or over a hundred years for tortoises. We would like cats to live much longer; we would like humans to stay in their thirties for a few hundred years. But we are not made that way; we can go for our maximum, but not beyond. Cats are the same way.
Consider how terrible it would be if all the cats in shelters had the potential to live to be one hundred. The number of wasted years, already huge, would become monumental; and the cage time for cats past the kitten stage would stretch out that much longer.
We must remember than elderly cats really are. James Bond will be twelve at the end of this month; ready for Social Security. From now on I expect him to be turning over more duties to RJ, sleeping more, and be readier to let the play session end. He’s already showing such tendencies.
As cats age, we have to recognize that they might not make it all the way to twenty. Not all humans make it to 97, either.
So we have to try to keep our perspective. Having cats means saying goodbye at some point. But we cannot let our attitude towards loss color their later years with sadness; or give up a wonderful cat experience because one day it will end.
This is, after all, the cycle of life; without it there would be no more kittens. And who would want to live in a world without kittens?
This doesn’t mean we should regard our cats as interchangeable. Every cat has their own personality, which means we must say goodbye to a cat who is not replaceable, and we will always miss them. We dread the missing them; but we should not let dread consume us.
We must remember that we made each other happy, and that should be our guiding principle. This was the time they had, and they spent it with us. However long or short a time it turns out to be.
After all, we don’t know how long going in, even when we first met them when they fit in our hand. The important thing was that they gave, and got, love.
No matter how much we miss them, we should remember one thing.
That the joy we had from our relationship is still far greater than the pain of their loss.
If not, we are indeed doing it wrong.
Yup when it is time, you just have to remember the great memories and most of the time when it is their time, they will be better off in heaven. I have one that is nineteen, and she is doing fine, but she is alive because of pills. But she is happy and eating so we will continue until her quality of lift just isn’t any good any more.
I just had to recently say goodbye to mine; he was only 3 which made it really hard to say farewell.
Afterward I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take home another cat because of the inevitable and painful goodbye session that will come eventually.
But I read a blog post last night that got me thinking; there’s another cat or dog in a shelter right now that needs a good home. I’ll just have to suck up the sad endings and, as Margaret has stated, remember the great memories.
Aw, John, that’s tough.
But you made him very happy, I’m sure.
And you can make another pet very happy, too.