i have a cat - fluffy. for about 17 years now. 3 nice years. 3 ok years. 11 progressively declining years. my cat has not 9 lives, but 90. she has not one typical cat personality, but has had many - some typical - some not so much. she has gone from *cute little baby fluffy kitty* to - WHY THE EFF WON'T YOU SHUT UP?! she has been with me through some tough times. she has put up with some crapola too. she's been abused a bit (no, not by me) for no reason other than that she's a cat. she had to live with another cat for awhile - she HATES all other cats. she had to adjust to a nosy dog (who loves her more than any of the rest of us do). she has fallen from a 3rd story balcony and was missing for 2 days. she has some insane illness that causes her to puke a lot. and this is not normal cat puking of fur balls, etc. this is straight on eat her food one minute and ralph it up the next. this is puke and puke until there is nothing left to puke but foam and stomach acid (yeah, gross i know - i LIVE with it). she has been to the vet a number of times and there is essentially nothing they can do. i tried all sorts of things and finally decided that i could not spend hundreds more on vets that had no real solution. so, she pukes, dinger eats it if it's food (hey, she's a dog), and we move on. i keep my eye on her in case it were to get bad - she'd have to go to the vet for hydration and meds - but i've been lucky that it's been years since i've had to do that. oh, and i almost fainted once when i took her to the vet and we were waiting to be seen. yeah, that's me. such a hospital complex that i have issues even at the vet...
anyhow, all that being said, i think my cat is now going senile. can a cat go senile? i don't know, but i'm pretty sure mine is. she carries on all the time. she meows and meows and meows and meows... you get the drift. she has no idea what she wants - she always runs to the counter where her food is. we lift her up, she may or may not eat a bit. then she's back to meowing. she meows for us to let her out (although we have a doggy door), she meows to come in, she sits in the kitchen and looks at us and meows, she meows when we go to bed, in the middle of the night, in the early morning, after b leaves for work, when i come home. this has been going on for about 3 years now. and her meow has gotten beyond a meow. it is this warbling howl. if you looked at her, you'd never think she could make such a sound. so, now she spends a lot of time in the evenings in the courtyard or the garage where we can't hear her. since summer is coming, we'll be stuck with her in the house again. i really don't know what to do. she just doesn't stop. i want to take her to the field down the street and let her go. but i can't do that - it would be wrong. so i just wonder - how long can a cat possibly live?
