Hello again to every body, you have helped me immensely over the last few days.

I would like any help anyone can give about how you may be able to guess the age of a cat, give or take a few years.

Mr Kat became our special boy 2 1/2 years ago, after we found him living in our garden and sleeping under our house.
The thing is, when I saw him I immediately remembered him from many years back, walking through our garden, with his black tail high in the air, and I remember thinking at the time, what a gorgeous looking cat he was. In actual fact, I was surprised when I saw pictures of Aspen in another thread, how similar their markings were. Both white cats with black on the head and back, and a completely black tail. If I ever manage to get the only photo I have of him up here, you will see what I mean, except for the fact that Aspen's coat is much longer. Also, there is one photo of Aspen where he has been clipped, and in profile, that looks just like Mr Kats profile, it is uncanny.

Anyway I digress. When I saw him all those years back, I was sure it was when my daughters were in high school, and so when I then found him in the garden in such a terrible state, and after not seeing him for years, I thought he must be at least 16 years old.
When I took him to the vet to be checked etc. I asked if he could give me any idea of Mr Kats age. I was very surprised when he said , maybe seven or eight, although he didn't look at his teeth or anything, just said it.
I always thought he was older, because of when I thought I saw him in my garden for one thing, also, over the past year, the hairs in his tail had started to turn white here and there. He had a little droop in his lower lip on the side, which reminded me of droopy skin which people get when they are old. also in the last few months, he was not as agile as he had been, much more tentative when he was climbing up or down the fence, for instance.
Does this sound like a cat who was thought to be around ten now, or rather around 18 or more?

I suppose I'm hoping he was the older age, as then I could understand a bit more why he had the bladder problem, evidently from the time we rescued him, and which eventually led to us having to put him to sleep 5 days ago.

And at least I would feel he'd had a good home in his later years, instead of living rough on the streets, and being in fights. It doesn't in any way stop the pain of not having him around any more , but it's horrible to think he died prematurely, at only 10 years old.

So can any of you who have had lots of cats, old and young give me any clues?
Thank you for your time,
Mr Kat's Mum

Hi Katlin, my tuxedo cat Felix started getting white hairs on his formerly all black fur when he was about 12 years old and Yukon got a bladder problem (his first ever) around that age as well. You know that barn cats or feral cats usually live only 7 years or less,I think the average is only 3 or 4 years old, I have a senior barn cat, he really looks old but I think he is only about 8 years old, indoor cats usually live much longer than outside cats. No matter what was his age, Mr. Kat had the best possible life, thanks to you. Be proud of that.

Thanks for your reply, toonie, it was helpful.
I think Mr Kat was older than the vet said, but I'll never know for sure, of course.
The thing I've come to realize is that no matter how old he was, he was in pain,
and he didn't deserve to suffer.

When we first lose our pets, we think only of the fact we can't do without them,
we can't bear the thought of never seeing or touching them again, and also, we
feel so sorry for them, that they no longer have a life on earth, with us.
But if the quote below is true, it makes our sorrow for them unfounded.
I have been repeating it to myself over and over, and imaging Mr Kat being in
a beautiful place, out of his misery, and it has helped a bit.

Allowing myself to bawl my eyes out has helped too. In fact I made myself cry
as much as I could. and even said out loud, things like, "I can't bear this pain,
I feel absolutely terrible!" and saying his name over and over.
I remembered how some other cultures don't hold back their emotions when they mourn, and I allowed myself to feel as miserable as possible.

It helps that I am at home, and not going out to work, it would be harder then, to let unbridled
emotion take over. I think then, I would let it all out the minute I got home, for as long
as I needed to.

One of the days, I didn't cry as much, but felt a sad depression instead, and funnily, my partner
had the same feeling, on the same day.
I miss my Mr Kat so much, and still find myself crying suddenly, but it is less than last week, thank goodness.
My heart goes out to all people suffering from the loss of a loved one, and I feel bad that before this happened to me, I didn't understand what others were going through.

Katlin48

I'm inclined to think closer to 18. The teeth usually can tell the age and if they didn't look at the teeth, it's hard. My sister's cat is 17 and she looks like she's 7.
You gave him the best years of his life at the end.

Bonny'sMom

Katlin, through Mr. Kat you have embarked on a tough journey of mourning, you seem to have the right idea, the sadness has to come out and I agree that it's much easier to deal with our feelings if we are home than at work. I would 'save' up some alone time to go and cry out my feelings, I really needed to let the tears come down. Today, one year and 2 months and 2 weeks later, I see that this was necessary and it has changed me, I may be more sad but I have a heck of a lot more compassion for whoever is suffering because I share that pain, even to this day though I really feel that I am out of the deep well of pain and almost desperation that we are in when we lose our soulmates. But they do go on, making things a little bit easier for us, speaking to us in a language that we never could understand before and letting us know that the love goes on. You said :[/QUOTE]My heart goes out to all people suffering from the loss of a loved one, and I feel bad that before this happened to me, I didn't understand what others were going through.[QUOTE] My cats and your Mr. Kat have opened our hearts, though it came with great pain, we had this last 'human' gift from them, bless them and how much the love goes on. Take care, you are at a very difficult time in your grief. Hugs. It will get better, you will make it out of the deep well but MrKat will always be right by your side, he is now your angel.

bonny'smom, it was interesting you mentioned a cat's teeth as showing his age, because about a week before Mr Kat got ill for the second time, I noticed his right top fang was broken off. I thought it must have been a new occurance, as I would have surely noticed it before, and I wondered then if it was due to old age.

toonie, I think you are so right, our pets have given us the gift of compassion, from the experience of loving them, and losing them. They have made us all better people because of the pain we experienced, and we are now more able to help others going through the same trauma
Yesterday, I told my best friend I was sorry I hadn't been more sympathetic after she lost her seven year old budgie, in September. I just didn't know how bad it could be, at the time.

Mr Kat
i wonder where your name comes from, maybe katzen ?
anyway
i was thinking about the problem of true age
maybe i can add something you can use

october 2003 Felice found my neighbor and he just handed her to me
she was so sweet, full of love, with a beautiful furcoat and a lot of activity

so all my folders, trying to find her former family, would say (at the beginning ): a young cat

then, after a few days, i took her to my vet, asking if it is possible to get her a petinsurance, he was laughing, he said, looking at her teeth, she must be 14, or 16, or 18 years old

i could not believe it, then he said, he can tell her age from her eyes too, from her iris,
yellow and black sparkling multicolour points !
my baby had bright colored eyes !

in her last months Felice became completely deaf
she was sleeping near my bed and i was very careful not to scare her

Eva

Thanks for the added info, Eva.
I am beginning to think Mr Kat was definitely older than 10,
especially because he had slowed down a lot in the last few months.

Just before Mr Kat got sick this time, I noticed a brown mark about 7o'clock on his right iris. I wondered why it had appeared. After he died, I looked up on an iridology site, (for humans) and it was the bladder area!

The name Katlin comes from Mr Kat and my name, Linda.

Katlin48