Do You Think Senior Cats Have A Greater Appreciation For Everything You Do?

[I_Wuv_Kitties]

Here's a picture of my cuddle buddy this afternoon at the shelter. Her name is autumn, she's 15, and still has a lot of love. It got me thinking, on some level, the wise senior cats have to know that at a shelter they can't compete with the kittens which everybody wants.


I see a lot of cats that are eight or nine years old with someone for their entire life, and then given up for whatever reason. It breaks my heart to see them so depressed, it's so incredibly rewarding to give them love and then watch them come around. They get so tickled that someone would even think to give them attention.


So that got me thinking, do you think senior cats have a greater appreciation of what you do? I feel like when you take in a cat that’s maybe eight or nine years old, they know on some level that you rescued them. That you saved them.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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I I_Wuv_Kitties - The answer is subjective, and dependent upon how much you feel you 'know' about how cats express their emotions. Personal opinion: yes - I believe they do. When my Father passed on, I "took over" his Siamese, Tori, who has since (in 2006) passed on. While she cried for him for the first year of his absence, she'd still come to me at day's end, and lay her head in my lap to fall asleep. I'm convinced that she knew that she'd been rescued yet again (she'd been twice rescued by the time she came to my Father), and her displays of affection were far more than the affection she showed me when Dad was still alive.

The fact that she had any affection left to give is testament, I think, to cats' unshakable ability to hope that they're in the care of someone who'll Love them and look after them - and having the ability to hope makes clear their ability to appreciate their circumstances. Tori was 23 when she came to me - a place in Life where most Humans would simply give up, but cats are resilient, and I genuinely believe that older cats appreciate fully their good fortune in finding a caring companion.
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[denice]

This reminded me of a video I had just watched on Youtube. She was 15 and had been at the shelter almost 5 years when she was adopted.

 

[Purr-fect]

Nice story....happy ending.

We adopted greg and arnold from a family that were leaving the country. I think we have improved their lives as the owner said no one wanted both cats and they would have been split up. Another happy ending.

 

[Docs Mom]

Boy, I'm really happy for Muffy, it got my waterworks going though..

We had a cat visit that was so small and skinny I thought he was a youngster. However, when I got ahold of him I saw...
a poor, lost, older cat with an awful skin condition.

When we visited the vet for vaccs. and testing, we discovered that he was declawed in the front and had very few teeth. That was 2 or 3 yrs ago. PC is still with us, he spent 2 yrs with my "bachelors" group in our garage shop. Last winter he looked so sad that I brought him in to join the inside kids.
Now he resides on his warm spot on the gas stove.
(nope, we don't cook much )
He's still quite agile, but we have no idea how old he really is. I'm just glad he found us.

Not really a shelter senior story, but a dumped senior situation. We live out in the country, WHO dumps a declawed, senior to fend for himself !!!!?

 

[neely]

I was at a pet expo over the weekend and saw a t-shirt that read, "There's no cat like an old cat!"

 

[vyger]

This is Scottie. I don't know how old he is but I have been seeing him for about five years so I would guess 6 to 8 years at least. He is not a rescue cat or a shelter cat, he is a wild feral cat. He is not pretty, not any special color, just a plain mouse gray. I used to only see him from a distance, nothing closer than 30 feet and at first I thought he was missing an ear. Then when I finally got a closer look it looked like his ears were folded like a Scottish fold so I started calling him Scottie. Well, as he became less afraid and I manage to get close pictures of him I discovered that his ears are all mangled. It's called cauliflower ear and in his case it's probably the result of being frostbite. So he is not pretty and not young and not tame. He grows a very heavy winter coat and in the spring it comes off in clumps and you almost would think he has a skin problem. If he ended up in any kind of shelter he would be put down right away because nobody would ever want him. It has taken several years but Scottie and I are now friends. Just this year we got to where he would let me see him without running away. Slowly he let me get closer and finally this summer he let me touch him and he discovered that he liked it. Now, he is the first one at the door, he will not even go for his food until he gets petted. It is like that is more important to him now than eating. He lets me pick him up he calls to me to find out where I am and likes to stay in my area when I am outside. He is always rubbing on me and I now have to be careful about not stepping on him.
He has had a hard life, now his life is a little easier. Now he has a friend. Does he appreciate it? He is wild and can leave at any time. He has chosen to stay around. I think he appreciates having a family now.

 

[Docs Mom]

Scotty is gorgeous! Has quite a majestic look about him...
Glad you two are friends now..