He lived to be 21, actually; he was a year old or so when I got him.

We have a feline vet who, if one of his patients makes it to 20 years of age, they put the picture of the cat on his office billboard.

It's becoming more common that cats live longer with good vet care. Some, however, that I see in our rescue, have had such a hard start before they come to us, that the odds are stacked against them.

We adopted him as a kitten from the city "pound" before they had an animal shelter here! He was neutered and lived mostly outside. He was a very sweet kitty.

She was my first cat. I got her as a kitten when I was in college. I never did anything special taking care of her. Grocery store food, annual check ups and she was pretty much an indoor cat.

She did get some arthritis the last 5 years or so. I put a heating pad set on low, covered with a doubled towel, on my bed and that was pretty much her place. I had this weird analog electric clock radio. It couldn't tell AM from PM so the alarm would ring at 6:30 AM and PM. I would generally get home around 6:30, so if I ran errands after work and got home late, she would "yell" at me when I got home, meowing loudly. She was a little deaf too, so it was REALLY loud.

She was pretty healthy up until her last week or so. She started peeing outside her box and the urine was almost fluorescent. She also wasn't eating. Took her to the vet and they said her organs were shutting down. I asked if I could have just one more day with her and they said she might be gone by morning. I took her home and we shared one last meal of Popeyes Chicken and just hung out. I took her in to have her put down the next day.

I was 44 and had her my entire adult life to that point. It was the first time I had really lived alone. It took quite some time to get used to her not being there when I put my keys in the door. She was a small silver tabby. Her name was Piccolo.

poor little thing was so tiny when we had her put down.

She attached herself to our youngest daughter. At 9PM nightly she would stand at the top of the stairs until the daughter went to bed.

She lived on Italian sausage and mozzerella the last year. Name of Nyki

He's starting to look old - he getting frail and losing muscle mass.

Before we got married my husband had a cat that lived to nineteen and a half, lasting well into our marriage. I had one when we married that lasted until he was almost nineteen. During their tenure we had maybe a dozen other cats who passed away much younger for various reasons.

My husband's last cat was almost eighteen when we had to put him to sleep. My previous cat was seventeen.

I had my kitty for 18 years, and previously had two for 16 years.

...he thought maybe it unzipped its head and took its brains out and played with them. Then when it got tired, it put 'em back and zipped his head shut again and took a nap. Hence, Zipperhead.

other than his fur being clumpy, he looks healthy. I think he is healthy from eating all that good mouse protein. He is an indoor/outdoor cat - obviously coyote savvy as I live out in the country. My other cat "Mr Lucky", Mr Photogenic, is a tuxedo cat - he came to my place about 12 yrs ago full grown so I have no idea how old he really is.

If it weren't for a frickin misdiagnosis we would still have the little guy, we lost him in April. But dammit - he sure packed a lot of love and cuteness into those 17 years!

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She lived thru 4 presidents and slept next to my head almost every night for 22 yrs - still miss the old girl.

I lost my Cranky Nigel on June 28, he was 21 & passed away in his sleep next to me. I really miss him. My 2 current cats are young punks--Sammy is 3 & Otis is 2. Both rescues, both spoiled rotten. All my cats have been rescues except for a Scottish Fold I fell in love with at a cat show in 1986. I had him for 20 years.