Spring Has Sprung!

But has it?  G’day!  Happy 1^st Day of Spring!  The flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping!  Somewhere.  It was lightly misting during my route this morning – but it had rained steadily over night, so all my towels, at each of my 16 or so locations, all had to be replaced.  Some have two at each spot, so that’s a lot of towels, and a lot of washing and drying!  TWO LOADS!  When you think about it, not only does this ’business’ I am in cost a lot of money just to purchase food, but there is a lot of wear and tear on my appliances, and my car!  I had to have an inspection the other day, and I couldn't drive away from there without forking over $404.00 for new tie rods, and of course the inspection itself.  This morning, I am having the CV joint replaced, for a mere couple of hundred.  Joy!  On my other car, I need new bushings for the suspension (am I saying that right?) and two new tires.  Joy joy joy!!!  Its always something.

Not only was it wet, but it sure is dirty out there.   Would be very sad to see the conditions of my spots in the daylight.  Its pure mud, most of them.  You can see the muddy cat footprints on the towels in the dark, but you know that when they step onto the dry clean ones to eat their daily breakfast that I provide for them, its of some comfort to them, even if they don’t realize it.

The city is so dirty this time of year, when the snow starts to melt, and the ice, and the ground begins to thaw.  When you drive around, the day after trash day, you see trash bins on their side, with spillage from them all around.  There are a lot of people who could care less how it looks to others.  I can’t imagine living next to someone who’s garbage bins have been out for two weeks, with piles and piles of trash spilling out of the tops of them, or someone’s house belongings thrown to the curb, yet this is what you see.  And trash, everywhere, in people’s lawns, on their porches.  If only they cared… 

I am sharing some interesting reading about the aging of cats.  I thought you might like this too.  Most of my kitties are in their ‘prime’, and some are quite ‘mature’.  And then there is Bittens, who is just that, a kitten, and Celia, who is a ‘junior’ at the tender age of one.  They both need homes, please spread the word!  And lets not forget Fraser, my other 'mature' boy that I rescued.  

FRASER

This article is by Dr. Arnold Plotnik, a DVM in New York City:

Ages and Stages

A New Chart Helps Pet Parents Calculate Their Cats' Age in Relation to Human Years
by Dr. Arnold Plotnick published in Cat Fancy September 2011

Cats are living longer than ever before, and I suppose it is human nature to wonder how a cat’s age would compare to a human’s. In talking with many people, I’ve discovered that the myth that dogs and cats age seven years for every one year is alive and well. I don’t know exactly how this notion came about, but I suspect many years ago someone decided that dogs live, on average, ten years, and people live, on average, seventy years, so dogs age approximately seven years for every one human year. This myth has been perpetuated for years, and frankly, it drives me crazy. First of all, cats live longer than dogs; this immediately skews the calculations regarding cats. Second, if you think about it, it’s not uncommon for some cats to live to be 18 or 19 years old. By the seven-to-one system, an 18 year-old cat would be equivalent to a 126-year old person. It’s true that people are also living longer than ever before, however, I’ve seen many 18 year old cats. I’ve yet to meet a 126 year-old person.

Cats age faster when they’re younger, but this slows down as they get older. At 6 months of age, a female cat can already reproduce. (If you use the seven-to-one rule, a 6 month old cat would be equal to a 3 ½ year old person, and 3 ½ year old people cannot reproduce.). In my chart, I figured that humans can reproduce around age 15. At 1 year of age, cat bones fully stop growing. This occurs in people at approximately 24 years of age, give or take a few years. Using this information (and 23 years of veterinary experience), I tried to devise a more realistic cat-human age chart that ends the seven-to-one rule once and for all. I thought my chart was pretty neat, until the American Association of Feline Practitioners and the American Animal Hospital Association released their Feline Lifestage Guideline chart.

This new chart is great for a number of reasons. I like that cats are no longer classified simply as either kittens, adults, or seniors. As a feline practitioner, I always felt uncomfortable with this system, as I felt it was naïve and one-dimensional. Where do you draw the line between adult and senior? Eight years of age? Nine? I never felt comfortable calling an eight year old cat a “senior”, especially with cats routinely living to the age of 17 or longer. The new Feline Lifestage Guideline chart breaks the feline lifespan into six discrete stages:

Kitten: 0 - 6 months
Junior: 7 months - 2 years
Prime: 3 years - 6 years
Mature: 7 years - 10 years
Senior: 11 years - 14 years
Geriatric: 15 years and older

This separation really seems to hit the nail on the head. Rather than call eight or nine year old cats “senior”, the term “mature” seems more appropriate. I also love the "junior" classification. Previously, kittenhood was said to come to an end when cats turn one year of age. I see many cats that are 18 months old, and while not technically "kittens", they've still got that wild and crazy streak that makes me reluctant to label them as "adults". Calling them "juniors" is perfect.

Have a GREAT day!