New anti-ageing drug for dogs works on hormone IGF-1

An enterprising woman who dropped out of Oxford University started a bold and interesting company called Loyal in San Francisco five years ago with the intention of creating drugs which extend the lifespan of dogs and perhaps then leading to achieving the same result for cats and even humans which would be the Holy Grail of medicine.

New anti-ageing drug for dogs works on hormone IGF-1. Image: MikeB

She has successfully tweaked the attention of investors and raised US$120 million to grow her business and take it forward. Her name is Celine Halioua.

The science behind her project concerns a hormone called IGF-1; a hormone which drives cell growth and big dogs grow quickly because that high levels of it. The levels remain high into adulthood. In general big dogs have shorter lifespans.

Her theory is that the hormone also fuels accelerated ageing of large dogs after they achieve maturity. It is my understanding that her drug will curb the activity of this hormone and thereby extend life by up to 10% of the dog's life which for a dog with a lifespan of 10 years would be one year.

The cost of the owner would be around US$50 a month. This would equate to around six thousand dollars over the dog's life to extend it by 10%. There is a question mark over whether people would want to spend that kind of money bearing in mind the cost of living crisis today.

The US Food And Drug Administration have reasonable expectations that Loyal's therapy for large dogs will be effective and therefore she hopes to bring it to the market in 2026.

It is called LOY-001 at the moment.

It is the first attempt to do this. She has built on the work of Dr. Cynthia Kenyon, as I understand it, who showed that it is possible to double the life of nematode worms by altering only one gene in the 1990s.

And late last year I wrote about another scientist with the same objective but using different techniques which you can read about by clicking on the link below if you wish.

Anti-ageing drug rapamycin expected to extend the lives of dogs, humans (and cats!)

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Are there age-related differences in cat coat colour?

Yes, there are age-related differences in cat coat colour and in fact markings. One comes to mind immediately which is you will see a young mountain lion cub with a spotted tabby coat while their parents are of one uniform colour. 

Image: MikeB

Nature has given the cub the added camouflage of the spotted coat because they are vulnerable particularly when the mother leaves the nest to hunt for food to bring back to her cubs. And at this time, when the mother is away, inquisitive cubs might venture from the nest making them more vulnerable. 

This difference between cubs and parents in terms of coat colour and markings is noted in the name of the mountain lion a.k.a. puma of which the Latin name is Puma concolor which means of an even colour.

In fact, all mammals exhibit important and obvious morphological (visible differences in anatomy) age-related differences. Humans are mammals and all of us realise that human hair changes as we get older. Hair colour lightens and becomes grey. The backs of male gorillas turn white at about the age of 12 which is why they are called silver-backs.

RELATED: Why are domestic cats different colours?

And we have to remember that elderly cats also develop grey hair around the muzzle as do dogs. It's quite a subtle change and its extent depends on the cat but it is sometimes quite noticeable.

And, turning to one of the popular cat breeds, the Siamese, when a new-born arrives into the world, they are pure white because they've been living in an even and warm ambient temperature, inside their mother's womb. 

But when they arrive into the world the kitten's extremities become colder than the central part of their bodies. This temperature gradient triggers the Siamese genetics which causes body extremities such as the distal parts of the limbs, tail, face and ears to become darker while the warmer the central areas remain lighter.

Interestingly, elderly Siamese cats have darker central areas because their cardiovascular system is less effective resulting in the dermis becoming cooler which means the central part of the body which is normally warmer starts to become cooler which means it becomes darker.

These are some examples of how age-related differences can be observed in cat coat colour and pattern.

This is a cross-post from another site.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

How do I check the age of a cat I have rescued?

I think that this is a good question. It is the question that a person asked on the Reddit.com social media website. They wanted to figure out the age of a tabby cat that they had rescue. The picture of the cat is below.

Rescue tabby cat about 12 months old? That's my guess. Image: Reddit.com.

The first point to make is that this cat is not full-sized. This is not an adult cat. We all of us know what an adult cat looks like and therefore we can measure the size of the cat that we've rescued against what we know is the size of an adult domestic cat. This, I think, is a good starting point.

We also know that domestic cats become adults at about 18 months of age. So, if a rescue cat is smaller than adult cat and indeed looks a little bit juvenile because they do look juvenile when not fully grown, we can work backwards from that 18 months and decide from the relative size their approximate age. In this instance I have decided that this cat is about 12 months of age because they are a sub-adult both in facial appearance (juvenile) and size.

Once a cat has become adult you will have difficulty in deciding the age if you've rescued a cat. The domestic cat's appearance does change as they become older. They do indeed look older but the changes are subtle. I think you can bracket an adult cat's age between about two years and eight years and then eight years onwards to a senior cat; that is two brackets which is very general indeed.

It is easier to figure out the age of a young cat before they become adults. Indeed, you can do it very accurately and/or veterinarians can by checking their teeth. Deciduous teeth i.e. baby teeth are gradually replaced by permanent adult teeth. At 3-4 months of age the incisors (the small teeth at the front between the canines) erupt followed at 4-6 months by the canine teeth, premolars and molars.

By seven months of age the cat's adult teeth are fully developed. Knowing this sequence, you can then work out fairly accurately the age of a kitten.

It is difficult to work at the age of a cat through wear and tear of the teeth. This is something that can be done for horses because they grind and wear down their molars but for cats it doesn't really work because they sheer flesh with a scissor-like action. Their teeth do not grind and masticate food.

However, the general condition of the mouth in terms of oral health will give a clue. A cat of around 8-10 years of age may have some gum disease i.e. inflammation of the gums, some tartar and calculus at the border between the teeth and the gums as well. If you see oral health which is not excellent and some build-up of debris and bacteria around the teeth then you can be sure that the cat is not young but somewhere in middle age.

In old age, domestic cats move more slowly. They sometimes become thin due to hyperthyroidism. They might have arthritis which affects the way they move. They sleep more. They are static more often. And therefore, they are less active. All the signs indicate that the cat is elderly and therefore in the age bracket of about 12-18 years of age.

Working out the age of South Korean kids isn't easy and the same goes for cats!

If you think that you can simply multiply the age of your cat by 7 to obtain the equivalent age in human terms, you are wrong. It is more complicated than that. The relationship between cat and human age is not linear to put it more scientifically. Anyway, this short article is not about cat age but about working out the age of South Korean children.

Working out the age of South Korean kids isn't easy and the same goes for cats! Image: MikeB

RELATED: Infographic cat age calculator.

Up until now South Koreans had a very peculiar (by Western standards) system which caused confusion. It goes like this. I will quote The Times verbatim just to make sure that I get it right!

By tradition, a Korean baby, however, is one year old at the moment of birth and gains another year every New Year's Day. [Using this system] in an extreme case, a baby born in the last minute of December 31 would turn two at the stroke of midnight, in the second minute of their life. The following New Year's Day they would be three, despite being only 366 days old.

The country has introduced a new system under a "legal revision". It comes into force today. South Korea is adopting the "international age". This means that children are born at age zero and you add a year on every birthday! That sounds logical. That sounds normal; the way it should be by Western and international standards.

Apparently, the president promised to make the change in order to "relieve social and administrative confusion and conflict". The country's minister for government legislation said:

"The unified age-counting system will greatly reduce social costs that were incurred due to using multiple age-counting systems."

Yes, it's being simplified. The old system, the traditional system, is based upon a belief that the months in the womb are also part of life. And The Times tells me that in South Korea forms of address between people change when speaking to an older person. This tradition is very strong apparently and older people are addressed more politely.

Now, some South Koreans are confused about how they should address someone who is a few months older because under the new (for South Korea) international system "they will be older in given age for part of the year and then become the same age after the younger person catches up on their birthday". It certainly is confusing in South Korea on something which shouldn't be confusing.

The ultimate mature moggie is active and healthy at 27-years-of-age

This is Flossie, a dark tortoiseshell and a rescue cat who's 27 years old. She was adopted by Vicky from the Tunbridge Wells branch of Cats Protection in the UK. There are a couple of points to make.

Flossie a tortie cat aged 27. Image: screenshot from Cats Protection video.

Flossie is remarkably fit and well for 27. This is about ten years longer than the typical domestic cat's lifespan. 

Flossie was crowned the World’s Oldest Cat by the Guinness World Records last year! She was adopted as a mature moggy by Vicki from @CP_TwellsBranch and is doing well at 27 years old! #MatureMoggiesDay @GWR pic.twitter.com/rTQbEVt6t4

— Cats Protection (@CatsProtection) June 9, 2023

Despite being the Guinness World Record oldest living cat in the world, she is actually NOT the oldest living cat in the world as that accolade goes to Rosie, another tortoiseshell cat living in the UK as well, who's 32 years of age. A truly exceptional age for a domestic cat.

Rosie should be in Guinness's book instead of Flossie but she isn't because her owner has not made an application. This may change as Rosie has attracted a lot of attention recently. I should think Guinness World Records will try and contact her owner to put the record straight.

The video may not have a lifespan (excuse the pun) that is longer than this website which means that it may disappear from this page one day and if so, I am sorry. Or it may end up being a link to Twitter. Fine but not great.

How many domestic cats are aged over 30?

Rosie, a tortoiseshell cat living in the UK, is 32 years of age.  Her birthday was on June 1st this year. She beats the current listing on Guiness World Records by 5 years as Flossie is 27 years old. Why isn't she in the record book? Maybe she will be soon.

I have a page on Rosie which you can see by clicking on this link.

Rosie is aged 32 and almost unique in the world as at June 2023. Image: SWNS.

I am going to try and answer the question in the title. No one but me tries to do this sort of thing. It is likely (that's about as sure as I can be) that there are no more than a handful of domestic cats on the planet that are over 30 years of age.

There may only be one: Rosie! 😃 And in some future years, there may be none. The age of 30 is almost unique in the domestic cat world.

It is not an age that the domestic cat is evolutionarily designed to live to.  The domestic cat's wild cat ancestor, the African wildcat has reportedly lived to 15 years of age in captivity. That's about as long a life as this wild cat can live and it is half the age of Rosie!

Good genes are the reason. Some cats and some people have 'good genes' as they say. It is pure chance as I see it. 

It is also pure chance that we get to know about Rosie. This is the weakness of the Guinness World Records listings. It is reliant upon cat owners taking the time and bother to report their cat's long life to the editors of that well known book.

A lot don't bother. And a lot of cat owners may be living with a very old cat without knowing it because the date of birth is unknown.

The date of birth of domestic cats is not always recorded. These are the reasons why we can't answer the question in the title with clarity but what we can say with some certainty is that there can't be more than a handful, if that, of domestic cats over 30 in the world.

He’s 60 years old in cat years but clings to me like a new born child. Why?

A Reddit.com user, Faris-Hilton said: "He’s 60 years old in cat years but clings to me like a new born child". Why is this? The man was impliedly asking a question. It appears that he couldn't understand why. I think I know why. And I am using the knowledge of Dr. Desmond Morris a world-famous zoologist and animal behaviourist. 

His theory, and I totally agree with him, is that we keep adult domestic cats in a state of mind where they believe that they are kittens for the simple reason that we provide all their needs. We are their surrogate mothers. This suspends their growth in terms of their mentality. It doesn't stop them developing as adults but it is suspended until they bring home a mouse at which point, they believe that we are their kitten and they need to train us how to kill a mouse.

Reddit user Faris-Hilton says his middle-aged cat is 60 in cat years but a child in his behavior. Photo: Faris-Hilton.

This might not happen every time but in the wild, the wildcat trains her kittens by bringing home prey animals which are still living. She might kill them in front of the kittens to teach them how to kill. Eventually they follow her outside the den to watch her preying on animals. In due course they become independent.

It would seem, therefore, that domestic cats can flick a switch from being a kitten to being a mother and in their minds, we can be the mother and a kitten. But to get back to this gentleman. He says his cat is 60 years old in cat years but behaves like a kid, in his mind he is a 60-year-old kid 😂.

There is another reason why he clings to him like a kid. He loves to be near him and in contact with him. Cats like to physically connect with their caregiver and other animals with whom they are friendly. Just like humans. It is a natural consequence of a close relationship. And it emotionally and phyisically warm.

Queen Elizabeth II refused to send a card to a domestic cat celebrating their hundredth birthday!

This is an interesting royal story concerning a cat (which is rare) and it requires a bit of explaining. Rachel Thomas, of Barmouth in North Wales found out that Queen Elizabeth II (the UK's monarch), sends cards to UK citizens who have reached 100-years-of-age. Rachel wisely understood that her 18 year old cat, Sindy, who was 18 years of age at the time, had reached the human age of 100. In fact she had surpassed that age. So Rachel wrote to the Queen asking for a special card from her majesty to celebrate her cat's hundred-year birthday.

Rachel Thomas and her cat Sindy. Photo: Rachel Thomas.

Now, in these instances the Queen does not reply personally unless the letter is exceptional or a response is required in her role as the monarch. She has assistants to help and I suspect it is the assistants who do all of the work including reading the letters and writing the responses. But they are written on her behalf so I think we can fairly say that you are getting a response from the Queen, indirectly.

RELATED: Queen Elizabeth II bans cats from Sandringham estate.

At the time Rachel was 10 years of age. She is now 44. And the response from the Queen was that she couldn't send a card to a cat. Rachel was very happy to receive a response anyway. She went back to her school class and told everybody that she had received a letter from the Queen.

Personally, I would have been a little bit disappointed because there is no reason why you can't send a card to a cat 😊. The Queen knew the address and the cat's name. All they had to do was pretend they were writing to an infant human and it would have worked out just fine. I guess the person who replied was a little too straight-laced to have the imagination to play that game. Anyway it was great to reply.

RELATED: Why doesn’t Queen Elizabeth II have a cat?

I think the letter was written by the lady-in-waiting to the Queen or someone of that standing. The Queen receives 300 letters daily I'm told by The Mirror newspaper. So she needs an army of helpers particularly now as she is 95 years of age. A remarkable age at which to continue working and serving the country.

Blood pressure is significantly higher in cats aged 11 years and over

In line with people, domestic cats who are 11-years-old or older have significantly higher blood pressure than cats of a younger age. A study found that blood pressure rises with age in domestic cats and this applies to systolic, diastolic, mean arterial and pulse pressure. 

Squirt. She’s about 11 years old. She was thrown outside to fend for herself after her elderly owner died. Squirt’s the neediest of all and needs a special human for her golden years. She is a senior with arthritis and is FIV-positive, and she really deserves a forever home to call her own again. Squirt will paw at you for attention—she’s desperate to be someone’s lap cat and best friend. Note: the photo is from several years ago and it is here to illustrate the page, no more. I don't know if she found a home.

Systolic blood pressure is the pressure inside the artery when the heart contracts to force the blood around the arteries. It is the high blood pressure whereas diastolic pressure is the pressure of the blood in the arteries when the heart is between contractions i.e. when it is relaxed and the heart's ventricles are allowed to refill with blood.

Also, the study found that cats suffering from clinical renal disease, which I take to mean chronic kidney disease, a common disease in elderly cats, suffered from higher blood pressure than cats who did not have the disease. The same goes for cats with hypertensive retinopathy, which is when high blood pressure causes damage to the retina's blood vessels which limits the retina's function and puts pressure on the optic nerve which can cause vision problems.

The study is titled Epidemiological study of blood pressure in domestic cats published on June 28, 2008 on the Wiley Online Library.

• Associated;
• Elderly cat health
• How many calories does an elderly cat need?

Cats live longer because of better cat food?

No, there is no hard evidence to support the view that cats live longer in 2012 than they did in say 1889. I refer to 1889 because Harrison Weir mentions in his book Our Cats and all about them (that is exactly how the title is written) cats of 20+ years of age. The upper age limit for cats seems to be very similar then as it is now. If this is correct it is disappointing because the great advances in veterinary care that have taken place over the intervening years should extend lives. Of course I am speculating.

Perhaps there are competing forces. In the United States the veterinarians must be far better than they were in 1889 because they are better trained and they have better knowledge. This should result in longer lives for our cat companion. However, there is a caveat: the application of today's vet's better knowledge and skills depends on the client (the cat's owner - caretaker) requesting that the vet exercise those skills.  If the cat's caretaker is more eager today to euthanise their cat then no matter how good a vet is, the cat will die. I am not saying they are; just making a point. Also vets 100 years ago did not declaw cats in the USA. Declawing can lead to abandonment due to behavioral problems and euthanasia.

There is probably greater control over the destiny of the cat today than in over 100 years ago. That may translate to shorter lives because where there is more control there is a demand for greater convenience. It can be convenient for a person to abandon a cat or euthanise a cat.

Also today in the USA people are considerably heavier. About 30% are obese apparently. The normalization of obesity in humans translates to allowing the domestic cat to become overweight with the incumbent health issues and a shorter life. These are all potential factors that might shorten a cat's life.

As to cat food, back in 1889 there was no commercial cat food. It simply did not exist and many years were to elapse before it did. Referring to Harrison Weir's book again, at page 118, he..

"advocates several meals a day, at least three, with a variety of food, such as raw shin of beef, cut very small; bones to pick; fish of sorts, with the bones taken out, or refuse parts (this probably means human waste food); milk with a little hot water; boiled rice or oatmeal...and grass..some boiled vegetables..."

He focuses on raw shin of beef as a core food. That is a typical good cat diet of 120 years ago in England, UK. What do you think?

It looks OK to me and is probably better on the whole than modern super convenient commercially available dry cat food.

Let's speculate again. Modern dry cat food might be a force against longevity. Irresponsible cat breeding tends to work against a long cat life. There a quite a lot of purebred pedigree cats in the USA today and these live shorter lives on average than moggies. In 1889 there were very few purebred cats in the West.

Although 100 years ago people let cats outside all the time there was much less traffic and less hostility towards the cat because there were less cats. That may have reduced the risks

Conclusion? - I sense that there have been improvements and set backs in cat care over the past 120 years. The result: house cats' lives have a similar length.

Associated: Cat posters (contains a cat age chart).

Children and Companion Cats

I believe that it is widely recognized that a child's relationship with a companion animal is of great benefit, actual and potential, to the child. The animal will also benefit provided the child interacts in a proper way with the animal. In fact the better the child interacts with a companion cat the better it is for both parties to the relationship as cats respond to circumstances. Create a good environment and you'll receive the rewards. Children also gain from relationships with symbolic animals.

The benefits to a child of interacting with animals is so well established that there are professionals who treat children with "behavior problems" using therapy animals. By the way I think there are a lot of professional misjudgments made regarding so called behavior problems in children. A lot of normal behavior in children is considered problem behavior because it does not fit in with modern adult perceptions as to what is acceptable. That strikes a cord with what I call expectation management in respect of adopting a cat and cat caretaking.

Examples of the "skills and values" that can be gained by a child through a relationship with a cat companion are:

Learning about mutual respect.
For me, this is very important. One reason for the breakdown in modern society in Britain is the lack of respect some young people have for others: people and animals. A major factor is the breakdown of the family unit. Through good parenting children learn respect. Knowing the benefits that a companion animal has to children, I would argue that good parenting should include providing a child with the opportunity to interact with a companion animal. The domestic cat is the most popular companion animal (just over the dog) in the modern age.

If a dislike of cats is handed down through generations within a family it is the child who is prevented from having the opportunity of the benefit of interacting with a companion animal. Although controversial, I would argue that a dislike of cats is due to an ignorance of cats. Ignorance is at the root of the problem. Education, as usual, is at the root of the solution.

All children should learn to respect animals. That leads to respect of people and to a generally better society for companion animals and people.

Kindness
Companion animals are vulnerable in the human world. We need to be kind to them. Dealing with them responsibly and properly teaches kindness. Kindness is a great quality in a child.

Humane treatment of others
With companion animals the human has choices. We create the environment under which our cat companions live. We can treat animals well or badly. Often we don't have choices about how we are treated. A child interacting with a companion animal can learn how to treat others humanely.  The benefits of humane treatment can be learnt. The impetus for treating companion animals humanely comes from a child's parents and to a lesser extent teachers.

Giving and receiving love and affection
Everyone who has cared for a cat in a responsible and caring manner has received the beautifully simple and uncomplicated love and affection that comes from the human/cat relationship. Children should feel that. It makes them better people.

Caretaking skills
All children need to learn these skills; caring for others. It builds a better person. Caring for a companion cat or dog is a very rewarding and an ideal way to pick up these skills.

Responsibility
Children need to gently take on the burden of responsibility for others and their own actions. When they are adult they will be burdened by it on all fronts. What better way to learn responsibility than looking after a companion cat.

The pain of loss
Companion animals have much shorter lives than ours. It is likely that a child who has cared for a companion cat throughout his or her childhood will have to deal with the pain of the loss of his friend.  It is a very painful experience. It is unfortunately, necessary to learn how to come to terms with it.

On the other side of the coin, a post on children and cats cannot overlook the abuse of cats by children. This is a complicated area of child psychology. I am layperson but common sense dictates that if a child abuses animals it is something he or she has learned from watching others or through suffering abuse himself. This is likely to happen in the family home as that is where interpersonal behavior takes place most often for the child.

Associated pages: How to tell cat abuse -  Kids killing cats.

Black cat life expectancy

Black cat life expectancy should be good and indeed better than average. This is because the gene that causes the cat to be black also provides a resistance to disease or its presence leads to a greater resistance to disease.

This is somewhat anecdotal and I you will find it difficult to find hard research to support that.

Also, I have to qualify the opening sentence. Black random bred cats will, on average, live longer than black purebred cats. This is because purebred cats are normally bred for appearance not health.

Inbreeding to varying degrees is required to maximise the appearance of a purebred cat. Inbreeding can compromise the cat's immune system which in turn can shorten the cat's life expectancy.

Random bred cats come from a much wider gene pool usually. This ensures better health all other factors being equal.




From Black cat life expectancy to Home Page

Cats and Dogs to Live Longer

The strange and perpetual desire for people to live longer has thrown up its latest possibilities, which are going to be tested on dogs and cats perhaps. It's just another form of animal testing it seems to me.

Ugly Little Kitty

Ugly Little Kitty - photographer: Sasyl (Flickr)

What an ugly little kitty. In our short sighted world of quick fixes, the appearance of a cat beats character. In other words in a rescue center a young, beautiful, white, long haired cat will get re-homed much more quickly than an old, short haired black cat, for example. Even if the character of the old cat is a thousand times nicer than miss glamour puss.

We do, as a species, tend to be attracted to appearance and the more bling the better. And white is a very attractive color to women (this is not being sexist). Or any light color is attractive to women and is it far to say that it is the woman of the house who usually gets involved in selecting the kitchen, the color of the car and the cat? Not sure. That wasn't sexist, either.

We do, as a species (male or female), tend to be drawn to the beautiful and that is understandable. But the most enduring of all beauties is often invisible on first sight. In fact, something quite ugly, after time, can take on the appearance of sheer beauty. This is because we stop seeing the appearance in a two dimensional way and start seeing the person or cat in the light of her character. The character colors the appearance. The classic case in the human world is of the older more experienced woman who was but is no longer beautiful (and who has had no, and I mean no plastic surgery) but who is educated, wise and sensible with a fine character. She is truly a beautiful woman.



When we next go to the animal shelter, let us try and look well beyond the glossy appearance of the cat or dog. In fact, let us go to the most neglected cat or ugly little kitty in the center and take her tenderly in to our care. The rewards will be so much higher.......for us. Did I say appearance of a cat beats character?



Appearance of a Cat beats Character to feral cats

Photo: the photographer Sasyl labels this photo "Ugly Little Kitty". I am sure she finds her adorable though -- photo published

Old cat health

Old cat health - Mocha an 18 year old female Himalayan who lives with Marilyn Papp. Photo copyright Marilyn Papp. This is where she spends most of her time nowadays.

Old cat health is a worry to people who keep cats. My cat is about 15+ years old. She is still healthy touch wood. She can't groom her back because she is a little overweight but is still in robust good health. For that I am eternally grateful and long may it last. As the years roll by we become closer and as I am retired I spend more time with her, which I sense she appreciates. We are very close companions, the relationship burnished and polished by time.

Marilyn emailed me about her cat.

"I just wanted to let you know that my Himilayan Cat is now 18 years old, Mocha, her top weight during her life was 5lbs 2 oz, she now weights 4lbs 2oz, her eyesight is very limited and the mobility in hind legs is deteriorating. But she is a trooper and still holding on. I have noticed lately...that.... her teeth are not looking good, but she does still eat dry food. Just thought you would like to know about my Mocha."

I do want to know about your Mocha. Mocha has a habit of burning her tail on wood stoves and has never learned to avoid the stove. She obviously doesn't care. She also used to love to travel (unusual for a cat). Mocha is well traveled. She has been to Wawa, Ontario, Ottawa, North Bay, and Sault St. Marie in Canada (all those places are in Canada aren't they, Marilyn?).

Here's a picture of her perched on top of the scratching post. She prefers to be there rather then scratch it. Sounds like mine. You can't get 'em to do anything they don't want to do (unless you trick 'em).

In human terms Mocha is 85 years old. My cat is a sprightly 73 in comparison. You can work out cat age from this posting, entitled, "How Old is My Cat".

I also made an earlier posting about "Senior Cat Care". From a common sense point of view, old cat health has the same problems as for old humans. The senses and mobility deteriorates etc. but they can live happy and full lives still. I try and exercise mine in the garden to keep her active. In fact she asks me out. She actually needs me out to supervise the area and protect her (and comb her). She feels safer then. Old cat health can be improved if activity levels are maintained.

Marilyn mentions that Mocha eats dry food. I used to give my cat dry food (on a vet's advice) but I now believe that it contains too much carbohydrate which can lead to less activity. I would recommend that Marilyn gradually transfers Mocha to wet food (canned or in a sachet) as this is better. I think this is now recognized as a fact rather than supposition. It can improve old cat health. (Update: Marilyn says this: - I do feed her moist food, I have to buy it at the vet, she goes through 1 little can every 5 days! - thanks Marilyn :)

Himalayans are pointed Persian cats. I have never lived with a Himmie. They have characters like Persians but perhaps not quite so docile as they are a cross between a Persian and Siamese. Siamese are quite active and vocal so this combination shouldn't be to docile. Marilyn will tell me in the comments section.

Marilyn, thanks for sending me your pictures of Mocha. I am sure like me you are occasionally concerned about your cat's age and her passing on. I am with mine. This is a tough part of living with a cat. But for me it has been a lovely journey full of reward.

Old cat health to Traditional Persian Cat

How Old is My Cat

Old Cat. The photographer "Steve took it" (photograph copyright "Steve took it") says he is 20 years old making him 93 in human age. A long life.

How Old is My Cat is a question that cat owners ask themselves sometimes. I actually don't know the exact age of my cat because she came to me from under a stationary car on a cold street in west London in November 1993. At the time I was living in Notting Hill Gate.

I always thought that the method for calculating a cat's age was to multiply by 7. If that was true my cat would be 105 and I don't think that is correct because she is pretty fit, eats well, likes her prawns and tells me what to do.

So I guess the formula of times 7 is a bit unsophisticated. A more accurate method is provided by the Cornell University of Veterinarian Medicine (who could be better qualified?).

The author on the Cornell site says this. Old age starts to show itself at about 7-10 years of age.

Here's a chart based on the Cornell advice:

Cat Age	Human Age
1	16
2	21
3	25
4	29
5	33
6	37
7	41
8	45
9	49
10	53
11	57
12 free bus pass	61
13 retirement and pension	65
14	69
15	73
16	77
17	81
18	85
19	89
20	93
21	97
22 letter from the Queen	101

That makes my girl about 73 or so. She may be 77 or even more are she was at least, I believe, one year old when she found me.

When I write this post I think of a concerned cat lover who had bought some Modern Siamese cats from a breeder and all her cats died before the cat age of 10. I think some vets in the USA (am I wrong? - tell me please) consider 10 a reasonable age for a cat. I always thought late teens was the target. You can now answer the question, How Old is My Cat....... Your cat should live to the human equivalent of old age, which is about mid 80s these days or 18 in cat time. I wonder if female cats live longer than male cats as is the case for humans?

 Old cat - beautiful but sad photo - by by YanivG (Flickr)

How Old is My Cat to Senior Cat Care