Love Meow recently uncovered a heartwarming thread on reddit, where one user described the relationship he has with the 22-year-old cat who has been with him his entire life.
ryantemple writes:
22 years my little buddy has been alive. Been with me since the day I was born, my one true friend.
For anyone wondering, I am 21 and my parents adopted him when they found out they where pregnant with me. Weird. But I guess they wanted to practice parenthood with a cat.
He won't let me leave
Everyone can't believe it when we say he is 22! I guess there's something special in the tuna we give him once a week as a treat to make him youthful! Haha. Or it could be he sleeps for 20 hours a day.
When my cat turned 20, he ran away! Being an indoor cat all of his life he would try to get out every once and awhile, and he did. We lost him for over a week, turns out he was living in my neighbors back yard eating their koi fish from their koi pond. Needless to say we are grateful for finding him and we haven't had another incident since then.
And NO he wasn't running away because he didn't like it here, he ran away because of his curiosity. You know what they say... Curiosity killed the cat. Not in my case though!
Put my cat in a beanie, he was not amused
Do you have a cat who is 20+ years old? I'd love to hear your story!
Via Love Meow / Reddit (ryantemple)
My grandmother had a cat (Gray Cat), who was around when my parents were dating (long before my time). She died at the age of twenty-two years old when I was fourteen years old. She had really bad gas, and was part armadillo due to her crazy long hair mats.
ReplyDeleteOH I am moved beyond words. Seriously. <3<3<3<3
ReplyDeletei hope he is not getting dry kibble, it is poisenous junk! i think not, because he would not have gotten to this age with that! real organic food, fish,rich in natural and high quality protein and taurin is important! i feed only a very specific brand with ingredients approved for human consumption, no chemicals and no preservatives.There are few manufacturers only. May he live another 20 years ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy cat is 18, and he has some pretty low brow tastes. He ignores the fancy food , even tuna, and goes straight for run of the mill Friskies, Meow Mix, and Kit n Kaboodle. He's still healthy and spry so I hope to see him live to 22 and beyond.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is simply beautiful. I especially love when @ryantemple calls the kitty "(his) one true friend." :)
ReplyDeleteWe just lost our 19 year old Sammy. We are thankful and lucky to have him as part of our family for the final seven years of his life.
What a beautiful story! It made me cry! This young man is truly an AWESOME guy, & he sure must have been ONE WONDERFUL kid growing up!! I give his parents credit so respectfully as their son was taught kindness before he was even born!! THIS family should be put on a pedestal as an example of humane kindness!! EVERY cat should be lucky enough to have a family like THESE people & son!!! <3
ReplyDeleteSuch a delightful story. Laughed about the cat eating the neighbors fish!!! Hope this lucky kitty is around for a long time.
ReplyDeleteWe had a cat that we catnapped from a former friend of mine who moved away to another state and left her behind with those renting his house. The tenants got tired of "Sneezy" (we renamed her Suzy) and told me that I could have her. She was at least 8 when my friend adopted her from the SPCA. He had her 12 years, and I had her for her last 1-1/2 years. She was an indoor/outdoor cat for her life at my friend's house, but was retired to indoor life here, and never even asked to go outside.
ReplyDeleteHe hadn't learned his lesson when another cat of his got killed on the busy residential street in front of his house.
He tried to have me charged with stealing Suzy, but I countered that he was guilty under Pennsylvania law with animal abandonment.
Oh, this is just too sweet.
ReplyDeleteMy Stanley lived to be about 25, and when he was 24 he ran away--while chasing a neighbor's cat out of our yard! He was only gone overnight, but he was the best. Two of my other cats have lived to 20, and several others have lived to 18 or 19. Those old kitties, they are just too special.
What an awesome cat this guy is! I love that he ran away at 20 and lived off of koi - that shows spirit! Although my human says she hopes none of us decide to follow that example.
ReplyDeleteOur Sandy cat lived until he was 20 years, 5 months, and 4 days old . In his younger days, we would let him outside during the day; this helped his fitness habits, and he never became really fat once he became an inside cat. He learned to recognize the smell of hard-boiled eggs, as the only time (other than Easter) we boiled eggs was for tuna salad. As he got older, he became weaker, and needed help jumping up to the window and the bed. My parents took him outside again when he was too weak to run away. His mother had one litter of kittens before she was spayed, and we kept this long-haired light orange cat. We gave his gray tabby brother to my aunt, and he was still alive at 14 when we visited them for Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a sweet story!! I love the bond between this man & his cat!! Very cute kitty!! I hope they have many more happy & healthy years together!!
ReplyDeleteso awesome! so sweet! long live kitties!
ReplyDeleteSuch an awesome story. I adopted my cat Copy Cat when I was 3 and had her until she became sick and had to be put to sleep when I was 21. I loved growing up with her and miss her like crazy.
ReplyDeleteOh, this story warms my heart! :)
ReplyDeleteI love that story. How wonderful that he's been with you your whole life. Cats. They get attached.
ReplyDeleteMy tortie Cally was a Christmas gift I received right before middle school, in 1997. She passed away a few weeks ago... I lived more years of my life with her than without her!
ReplyDeleteShe will forever be my special girl because of the many chapters of my life she was a part of!
http://adventuresinaubreyland.blogspot.com
Such one loyal cat. And 22 years of living with a cat is such a miracle. That tuna must be really special, huh!
ReplyDeleteMy cat of 22 went off today to die. I have no idea where she is but she went out the front door, looked at me and started walking. Everything makes it look as if she planned it all and from cat psychology books we learn, they do. If I would find her hiding somewhere, we are going to leave her. She deserves to do it her way: peacefully and dignified.
ReplyDeleteMy Cat is a female & going to be 20 yrs old on January 1st.
ReplyDeleteShe goes outside when she wants too. We do not keep a litter box in the house.
I live in the mountains for California , on a few acres . Although when she is outside she stay's by the house for some sun, goes potty, and comes back into the house.
She plays with my little Chi dog, and gets along with other dogs that come over..
What is sad for her is. We use to have a black & white male Boston tarrier dog.
My cat is also black white.
Both my cat and dog where best friends. They never left each others side.
They sleeped together , they laid by the fireplace all winter together.
Our dog would walk down to our river, go in the river, but my cat would sit there and watch, and wait for him.
My Boston went out one night, and just dropped dead. My cat was in morning for over 2 years!.She is still sad about it.
A few years later we build a new home on our property, But the cat did not want to leave the old house. I have a doggie door there, and I kept her food and water inside the old house..Finally when a raccoon got into that house I had to lock it up, and she had to come into our new house..
Its now over 8 yrs later, and she still wants to go back in to the old house.
She eats regular dry cat food, as that is what my vet said for her to eat. It is also good for her teeth.
I have to cut her toe nails, cause she does not climb trees anymore to keep her toe nails shorter.
She loves to be cuddled. and we all love to cuddle her, and brush out her fur...
The vet says she is still healthy..