Here is the second draft - i might have made it too personal now!! And am not sure whether it is too long to prevent people reading it.
I am a fosterer for CAT77, I foster cats of all ages, but for my permanent cats, I only take on cats over the age of 10 years old, my current two are Tiger, 13 and Molly, 14, both came as fosters and were overlooked, so after months of trying to find them homes, I adopted them. Molly’s story can be found here
I wanted to share my experience of why I went down the route of oldies, in the hope that it changes people’s perception of them, and go on to offer one the loving home environment they deserve.
My first cat was a 14 year old, sadly she wasn’t with me long, and I then went to the local CP to adopt another cat, as the house was simply too empty. I was debating whether oldies would be my ‘thing’ then, but they only had a 5 year old in, so I adopted her thinking that at her age, I would have her for years, while my oldies came and went, and that might make it easier. She was a brown tabby who I called Tigger.
The same day, my parents told me about a stray near them, I debated with the cost of 2 cats, and the week after, I went and picked him up, the vet estimated him to be 11, he was called Ginger by the people in the neighbourhood, you can guess his colour! Gingers story can be found here.
Sadly, after 8 months, Tigger became ill, and was diagnosed with an incurable illness. As she was the second cat I had lost in 10 months, I decided that I would prefer to adopt oldies from now on, it can bring heartache, but that is offset by the knowledge that you have given that cat a second chance in their twilight years, and that they have ended their life in a loving home environment rather than a rescue, which is what they all deserve.
Ginger ended up having 4 years and 1 month with me, my longest resident here, and he saw a lot of cats, both permanent and fosters, come and go. Out of the two of them, I never expected him to be the one I had for years, while others, both younger and older than himself, came and went.
There are a lot of benefits towards adopting golden oldies, they are a lot calmer, and happy to be left alone all day while you are out at work, with no destruction cos they got bored!! They do still like to play though, Molly regularly chases her tail on the bed – either as I am deciding to go to bed myself, or at 6am in the morning, when she thinks I should be up as well!!
Another thing that can be off putting is the cost, but this needn’t be that much of an issue. There are insurance companies who will insure cats over the age of 8, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s are the ones that I would recommend, and I personally use Sainsbury’s, they have insured 4 of mine, I didn’t know about pet insurance before. They paid out over £700 for just one of my cats last year, and the cost per month isn’t that high for a moggie.
We can also help towards the cost of vet bills for 12 year old + adopted through ourselves, as long as you can use our vet and we approve it first.
