Article - Adult Cats

Older cats often lose their homes when their human companions die or must themselves move due to their need for assistance and care. These kitties often have little chance of adoption in a shelter. Many shelter also have arbitrary age limits for euthanasia, and some rescue groups refuse to consider taking a kitty who is over 4 years old. When you consider sharing your home with one of these kitties, you may literally be saving its life.

Just as humans are enjoying longer lives and better health with advances in medicine and health care, so, too are cats and other domestic companion animals living longer, healthier lives. It's not unusual for a well cared for cat to live into its late teens or even its twenties. Some of our volunteers have shared their homes with cats who have reached the age of 24 or more years.

Kittens are essentially a work in progress. Like human infants, their personalities and habits are unformed and you can't accurately predict what they will be when they reach maturity. Some kittens who are showered with love and attention grow into cats who are sweet and interactive while others are distant and aloof. And kittens are often so full of energy and not yet really attuned to what is "proper" or "acceptable" behavior from the point of view of a human.

Kittens can be a particularly unwise choice in certain types of home environments. These include homes where older people and infants live. Kittens may not be aware enough of their surroundings to stay out from under the feet of people whose eyesight and balance may not be as good as they once were. Kittens also tend to still be in the "rough and tumble" stage of their development. During this period, kittens are encouraged by their mothers to engage in rough play, biting, scratching and pouncing on their companions. This is instinctive behavior which prepared the kittens to hunt so that they would survive. These behaviors have not been lost through their domestication, and continue to be seen in their play (pouncing, chasing, biting). Human infants and small children often do not understand that they cannot simply grab a kitten, or they squeeze it or refuse to let it down when it struggles, resulting in the cat doing what is only natural, biting or scratching. Small children also often are impatient or rough in handling a fragile kitten. They tend to "throw things" down when they are finished playing with them or when their attention wanes, causing injury to the kitten. Adult cats are better able to hide or place themselves out of the reach of a small child to avoid these situation, which is safer both for them and for children.

The biggest advantage you have adopting an adult cat is that their behavior patterns are generally well established, and living in a foster home, they have been observed in their interactions with other cats, and sometimes with birds, dogs and children. While there are many adult cats that are very playful and love both solitary play with toys and interactive play with their human companions, they usually have outgrown their kitten tendencies to climb curtains and knock treasured breakables off of shelves.

The biggest disadvantage an older kitty must overcome in trying to find a new home is that most older cats have become comfortable in their home, and when their circumstances change, they are more likely to be "shell-shocked" and confused. This can cause an older cat to be uncertain and less able to show off its good qualities to potential adopters. They need people to be willing to give them love, affection and emotional support while they adapt to a new home.

It is also important to provide your feline companions with regular veterinary checkups. Like people, cats are highly individual in how and when they begin to feel the effects of their age. And unlike many other species, cats are particularly adept at hiding their illness or discomfort, often until an illness is far advanced and much more difficult to treat. Regular veterinary checkups help to identify potential problems and deal with them before they become serious.

The aging process can include fading eyesight and hearing, chemical imbalances such as hyperthyroidism, arthritic changes and dental problems which cause a cat not to eat properly. Many of these are similar to conditions which are common to humans, and they are every bit as preventable and curable in cats as they are in humans.