The Senior

This innocent looking creature is 18 and a half years old. If you've been reading in the past, you'll know that this is our dear sweet Svetlana. She is a strong old girl. She made it across the country with us on the plane. She's on two kinds of medicine, one for her kidneys and one for her thyroid. She has been chased by many cats over the years when D. had roommates with other cats. These roommates came and went and so did their cats. Svetlana has outlived them all. A year ago we realized she had lost her hearing (which isn't always easy to notice when cats can be so aloof) and the poor old girl will sometimes jump if you don't let her her know you're coming up beside her (my favorite indicators are waving my hand before her to get her attention or tapping my foot on the floor or surface she is lying on).

The important thing to remember is that she is a strong old girl. Over the last couple of months, she's been howling like a deaf siamese in the middle of the night. It's a blood-curdling bellow that she musters up with all of her strength and it is relentless. Nothing seems to stop it. We've tried ignoring it, getting up and sitting with her, feeding her, getting her water, fluffing up a nice fleecey blanket. Nothing works! So, I'm now accepting that our dear sweet Sveetie is senile. She's a senile senior and I just have to let her howl. She does stop when I sit with her and watch her pace the room, pause, look around and then begin to pace again. However, I can't really spend my nights up watching the cat (who's crazy then? the one with no sleep), but I will have to get up with her. There are people living upstairs with a small child who must be having nightmares with howling cats. Oh well, she'll talk about it in therapy in later years I'm sure.

So, farewell cozy sleep filled nights. Welcome to Svetlana's senior days.

p.s. photo courtesy of red jane