Aging Costs Nick Us

And Time Makes Us Feel Strange

Our 15 year-old cat believes in his power to protect us. He is restless, brave and insistent. Even now as I type; he comes up to me with a meow that says don’t ignore me, you know what I want.

What he wants is to be let out so he can circle our house perimeter searching for intruders and burrowing chipmunks who cause landscape issues. Although I would normally open a door for him, for the next week he is confined to the inside.

Last week he stood up to a feral cat on our deck and as they whirled around like tumbleweeds, Stoli was bitten, scratched or nicked. He came in limping. I did not see any blood or wound so we let it go. A few days later he was no longer limping so we assumed his right paw had healed itself. But days later he began limping again so I brought him to our vet who discovered he had a lesion that was infected.

So over one thousand dollars later, Stoli is on his way to recovery. Yes, you read that correctly.

Stoli is definitely living out the last few of his 9 lives. Six months ago, the same veterinary practice detected a large growth near his stomach and intestines. Stoli had been eating voraciously, losing weight and vomiting. He was a mere seven pounds when the vet brought us into the back of the office to view his Xray so we could see the growth for ourselves. We opted for no biopsy or surgery, instead putting him on a steady daily dose of prednisone.

Fast forward three months and he has gained 4 pounds, not vomited once and eats normally. It appears from the vet’s palpation of that area that the growth has shrunk considerably. Stoli has ticked off one of his “lives” with the help of medication.

It is hard to see a pet unwell or injured and the impulse is to do whatever it takes to at least make it comfortable. As we age ourselves, we see more and more of our own situation in our aging pets. Their changes mirror our own and our daily interactions with them expose the slow progress of time as it ages our bodies and minds.

I want to look and feel the same way I did 20 or 30 years ago. I am surprised not so much by the mirror’s everyday reflection, as by the truth of photography which catches me in unflattering positions and situations these days. The ubiquity of photography and the obsession with recording our daily lives and moments in photos is often unflattering. Simply, I am not always “Insta Worthy.”

But it is not until I see my pets’ aging that it really hits me. And it is a shock to see my grandchildren sprout up and change physically, reminding me what time does, both good and bad.

Time brings brings changes in so many ways, yet it still stops me in my tracks. I always loved the Bonnie Raitt song, “Love in the Nick of Time” when she sings, “I see my folks are getting on and I watch their bodies change. I know they see the same in me and it makes us both feel strange.”

And then, “no matter how you tell yourself it’s what we all go through, those lines are pretty hard to take when they’re staring back at you.”

And no matter how many dollars I may spend on laser resurfacing and Botox, the changes are going to come. The natural course of time runs through everything we do and everything we love. We must celebrate the good changes and learn to accept everything else.

So Stoli will live to see a few more days, weeks, months or perhaps more. He has caught and eaten a nice quota of rodents in and around the house and protected us from the dangers of feral cats. In fact, he just jumped up on my desk and announced his demands to go outside. He is no longer limping, but I know right now is really just the nick of time.