Found a cool cat test

I found an interesting cat test today. The purpose is to tell you how "old" your cat is in some sort of comparison to people's ages.

catage.com
Interesting cat fact I picked up from the test: an outdoor cat has an average lifespan of 5 years, while an indoor cat has an average lifespan of 15 years or more. Since Jessica was always an indoor/outdoor cat - although she never was a roamer - I'd guess that means she has far outlived her predicted lifespan.

A couple of critiques on the test... First, it doesn't account for changes like the one above. When they asked, "Does your cat go out?" I honestly answered "No," though in fact she used to go out a lot. She never roamed, though. I seriously doubt she left my yard more than a handful of times in her outdoor life.

The other critique I have concerns the fact that they ask about vision problems (Yes!) but not about hearing problems, like deafness doesn't make a difference, especially if the cat is blind. And I also had to honestly answer that she doesn't play or scamper anymore, though she just gave that up in the last few months because she can't see. I'm sure she'd still be jumping and playing, even catching mice if she could see and hear them.

Jessica's Cat Age: 79

Having a good day

Obviously, Jessica's been a busy girl. But seriously...

Jessica's been doing really well the past couple of days. She is getting to know her way around the house so she can get from my bedroom to the bathroom without bumping into something and getting lost. I hardly ever hear her wailing anymore, so I'd guess that all the wailing was just a matter of not understanding what was going on or where she was.

So now that she's not confused anymore, she's back to being her old perky self. Just in the past couple of days she's started to look healthier and put back on some of that weight she lost in the past couple of months.

I was thinking at the time that her health was declining in general, but now I think she just had so much trouble finding the food dish that she wasn't eating often enough to keep her weight up. If I'd realized that, I would have bought her her own domain instead of getting her a free blog.

Over the years she's tended to get thinner, anyway. One summer I spent three weeks in Spain on an educational exchange. While I was gone, she lost so much weight that she was just skin and bones. I was really worried about her. She just lay listlessly on the side porch and wouldn't come in long enough to eat.


But anyway, with any luck I'll get her fattened up enough so we don't have to worry about her health. Then next summer I can cage in the side porch for her so she can sleep there safely and get some fresh air, while getting visits from her fans.

While I think about how I could travel with her...

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Introducing Jessica

This is Jessica, my very special needs kitty. We've been together for 15 years now, and she's getting on in years. But she's a great companion, so I'm glad to have her around and don't mind helping her out when she needs that help nowadays.

A couple of summers ago she had a nasty little accident - got her right hind leg shut in the screen door while I was carrying bottles from the house to the car - and she spent 3 months in splints, clunking around the house and yard like a youngun on crutches. It didn't heal quite right, but even though it was a little bit crooked, she was able to resume normal activities - jumping, landing, sneaking through doors. Well, it wasn't quite like before, as whenever she jumped onto a slippery floor, she would land on her bottom, since her right leg would go out from under her. But she seemed to be OK with that. So aside from this and a drug allergy episode that happened when she was quite a bit younger, she's been really healthy, and quite low in maintenance.

Last summer I noticed that she was starting to get hard of hearing. One day she was sitting in the driveway. I drove right up to her, got out of the car, and walked into her range of vision. She startled. Then just a couple of months ago I realized she was completely deaf. If I clap my hands behind her head, she doesn't notice, whether she is awake or asleep.

There's worse things, right? As I was saying, she could be blind. And she is an awfully nice kitty. She has fans that would drop by to visit with her when she was sleeping on the porch. What I always tell people is that she hardly ever bites anybody anymore, not like she used to do back in her hellcat days. She likes to sleep with me now, too. She would never ever do that before.

But I did notice that lately she was having trouble jumping down off the bed, which I attributed to what was probably arthritis.

Last week I was on the telephone. I glanced over and saw her walk into a wall next to the doorway. Twice. Oops, looks like the cat's gone blind.

So it's been a learning experience for both of us. She navigates by bumping along her right side, so she must be "right-handed". I've been trying to rearrange the household so as to remove anything that might confuse her. I've set up some bumpers as guides for her to get to my bed without getting lost in the bedroom. I've put a chest at the foot of my bed with a box to step down on. The bed in the other room has a plastic pet stairway, though I'm not sure how well that will work, as it has no guardrails.

She was a little depressed about it, but now she realizes that she just has to learn the household again so she can sleep in all the comfy places. She walks over the guide bumpers, then comes back inside them again.

I'm also hoping that pretty soon she'll decide not to drink water out of the bathroom sink anymore. She can still climb up to it, but getting down is pretty unsafe for her. I'll be in my bedroom and hear a crash. I run into the bathroom, and find the cat picking herself up out of the litter box, or I have to pull her out of the trash.

So I call Jessica my extra special needs kitty. I'll keep you updated with news and pictures of her as time goes by.