Simone Achieves a Lifetime Milestone

Today I jump to present time.  On December 29, 2010, Simone attained her twentieth birthday.  Who-hoo!  It's really hard to believe that I have lived with a nonhuman animal for almost 20 years.  That blows my mind!  That's over 7000 days that we have spent together, through good and bad times, through 5 homes, and through several significant others, humans that is.  For most of those days, she has slept faithfully by my side at night, her paw on my paw.  Through that score of years, Simone has been the only living constant in my home life.

The picture above was taken on her birthday.

I could never have imagined having a companion animal for such a long time.  With one exception, I was not allowed pets while I was growing up.  After my mother died in my early teens, my father granted permission to have a kitten, but it disappeared after several months.  I would not have another companion animal for 20 years.  After being introduced to Siamese cats, I was sold on them.  I was captivated by their intelligence, playfulness, attentiveness, gregariousness, and their non-stop chatter.  But my first Siamese cat, a male by the name of Cupid, only lived to be about 8.  Until recently I had no idea that Siamese cats are known for their longevity, particularly females.  I have read on-line that Siamese cats can live into their mid-twenties or longer. 

When Simone was diagnosed with CRF in July 2009, I thought she had only weeks or months to live.  I mentally prepared for the worst, but also got busy learning about her illness.  Even more amazing is the fact that Simone has contended with a potentially mortal disease during the last year and a half.  She is a very feisty and determined cat.  She has endured the indignities of daily syringe feedings and sub-cutaneous injections with tolerance, patience, and courage.  Today she shows her age:  underweight, slow moving, cognitive loss.  But she still retains her finest traits:  talking, socializing, and deep purring.  Human-equivalent age calculators show her to be around 96 in human years (cf. calculator at bottom of blog).  Wow!  

For Simone's birthday, a decorated cake was made.  The picture on the cake shown above is Simone at 8 weeks of age.  Of course, she didn't eat any cake, but she did have some special food for her birthday.  Below is a granddaughter, Madeline, and I at Simone's birthday party.

Happy new year to all!  In the next post there will be a video about one aspect of Simone's daily treatment.  Purr on cat lovers!

"The cat could very well be man's best friend but would never stoop to admitting it." (Doug Larson)