Thursday, August 6, 2026

Toughing Out My Cat's Ninth Life

Living with an old cat is not any more fun than living with an old anything, be it animal, vegetable or mineral. Take, for example, my dryer. It no longer dries the clothes the first time I ask. I have to go back to it and rearrange the load, then ask nicely and set the dial for another whole cycle. Who knows why, maybe it's just sick and tired of the whole wash-rinse-spin thing. 

We ditched our old toaster a few weeks ago for only toasting one side of the bread at a time. Ditto our electric coffeepot, which refused to keep the coffee hot once it was brewed.

Old clothes are annoying, what with the stains and rips and the not fitting anymore. Out they go in the trash, or maybe to Goodwill if there is anything left to recommend them.

Parents of course get better treatment, either moving to in an in-law suite if their kids are nice or an assisted living facility if they are not.

Humans cannot abide living with old things, but when it comes to our pets that's a different story, much worse than wet clothes or demanding parents. For example, my 19-year-old Maine Coon Lurch is in his ninth life.  he has been disintegrating before my very eyes for the last year. Once weighing in at 16.5 pounds, he's down to about ten, and all bones.

Lurch is 75% deaf, 50% blind and 100% demented. Still, we feed him and give him fresh water and change the litter and brush his lackluster fur and try to play with him and cuddle him, although he has no interest in much beyond treats and sleeping. He also likes to go outside and sit on the deck and stare into space. Usually he comes right back inside, but today, in a hot 85 degrees, he has wandered off, causing me to cancel all plans so I can stay home and hop from window to window looking out for him.

Since he is deaf so I can't call out his name. There is simply nothing I can do but wait, which is the worst possible tool in the Doing Department. Sadly this is not my first rodeo so I know how it will end. I just don't want it to be today.



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Toughing Out My Cat's Ninth Life

Living with an old cat is not any more fun than living with an old anything, be it animal, vegetable or mineral. Take, for example, my dryer...