On ageing and dying

'Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many different ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.'

Joseph Wood Krutch

Cats normally live to about 15 years of age, although it is not uncommon to see some living over twenty years. Cats, like all animals, suffer the pains of getting old - they can't climb trees like they used to. Catching a bird becomes a chore and quite often they'll just flick their tail and look longingly at the dove on the branch outside the window. Often they'll sleep more, eat less, become more finicky with their food, and become more demanding for attention.

The common problems cats experience as they get old is tooth problems, skin problems, arthritis and weight loss. As with elderly humans, looking after an aged cat requires more care than with younger ones. It is important to ensure their diet is suited to their age (more vitamins are required, as well as higher fibre and reduced protein).

Mourning & Grieving

Cats, like any other animal including humans, go through grieving and mourning periods whenever they experience overwhelming loss. For a cat, such overwhelming loss is usually for a loved one, whether it is a cat companion, it's mother or a human who it has bonded to. Like humans, cats show varying degrees of mourning and grieving behaviour depending on their personality. Some cats do not strongly bond with other cats or humans, and their only real bond is with themselves (and their routines). These aloof cats usually only show grieving when they are re-homed, when their routine is upset by some major domestic change (such as a new baby or new home). They often go through a period of wanting to hide and be alone until they can come to terms with the change in their normal routines. Most cats that develop emotional bonds to other cats and to humans show obvious signs of being affected by the loss of this bond by wanting to be alone, to being aggressive, not wanting to be patted and not eating. Because cats have a less developed frontal lobe in their brain compared to humans, they usually don't abstract their loss and develop complexes or neuroses over this loss the way some humans do. So as a general rule, cats tend to recover from loss a lot quicker than humans.

Dogs fit in somewhere between humans and cats on the grieving scale, since dogs are social animals and generally form much stronger bonds to one or many humans in their family (pack).

You don't have to be Freud to solve a cat's psychological problems. Often just realising that your cat is grieving is enough to remedy the situation. Being patient with its moods gives the cat a chance to adapt to its new environment of changed routines. Scolding a cat for hissing and hiding every time your bring the new baby into the room will only aggravate the cat's mood and slow the emotional healing process.

Euthanasia

A time to rage, a time to retire

A time to live, a time to die

When the time comes to have your cat put to sleep, always try an remember what the cat is going through. Quite often the cat has become seriously ill or is too old to enjoy life any more. Usually the decision is made slowly and after much talking amongst the family and getting advice from the vet. There is no hard and fast rule when to decide euthanasia, but usually when an ill cat stops eating for more than three days in spite of medication and tempting it with delicious food, the time is nigh.

Some people believe it is better to 'let nature take its course' and to let the cat die without being put to sleep. But in the wild, if nature took its course, the sick cat would be killed by a scavenger bird or dog within a day. Though this is also nature's way, most of us wouldn't consider this a suitable option for our cat. So when we are saying let nature take it's course, we are really saying 'let's wait for the disease to kill it'. Not that this is morally wrong, but a cat can take weeks to die, and often the owner has to wash it daily because it has soiled itself from bowel motions, urine and vomiting. Cats have a natural sense of pride in that they normally are meticulous with their grooming and cleanliness. For them to be soiled is a disgrace, so unless we are determined to nurse the cat until the time it dies, it is far more practical to have the cat euthanased.

The other argument which many owners have to consider is, 'When is the right time?'

This is a grey area of veterinary science, and usually the owner and vet make a decision based on all the factors. Some people want to euthanase their cat the minute it is diagnosed with Aids or cancer or kidney failure. They may not want to try any medical treatment or may not be able to afford it. Being open about where you come from emotionally and financially makes it a lot easier to find a suitable time for euthanasia. If you and your vet have a good rapport, you will find that a common sense time is usually when the cat no longer responds to treatment, is losing considerable weight and is spending most of its time sleeping. The quality of life at this stage is zero. The table below, which I have adapted from the human psychoanalyst Abraham Maslow who described the 'hierarchy of human needs', shows the various levels of cat quality of life from Poor quality of life (where the cat is sleeping all day because it is too ill and too weak to do anything else, even eat) to excellent (the classic cat, Garfield, who has all his needs met, including sex.

Indicators of 'quality of life' (Graded 0 to 4)