kids, you just haveit all handed to you. and let me justtell you something, it's all about kittens. kittens, kittens--oh, i want a kitten. so sweet.
best food for 14 year old cat, please, let me have a littleball of fuzz, a little kitten. what about the older guys? what about them? let me tell you something,youngster, you better
go out there andcatify the world! now, get out of here. yesterday i went to thiswonderful woman's house, janet. hi janet. she's fantastic. she's a great artist. and she's also a caretaker formany elderly and special needs cats and dogs. i mainly wanted totalk a little bit
today about the benefitsof adopting an older cat, slash dog, slash pony,slash bunny, whatever. first of all, they demandless and they give more. that i can tell you bymy experience, and maybe my friend janet, andanybody else who specializes in older animals. they can tell you, man,these guys are grateful. you will find that the love thatyou get from an older animal is just unparalleled.
and i'm not justsaying this, guys, i'm not just sayingthis because i want to go out there and be justlike my friend janet yesterday. and take the hard to place guys,take the ones that are older, take the ones that mayhave higher vet bills. yeah. i mean i get it, it mightbe an inconvenience. and also psychologicallymay be very tough for you. but that said, the paybackis absolutely immense.
secondly, by andlarge, they tend to be less willfullydestructive. less in the way of marking, orif they don't get their way, they pee somewhere and theycan scratch up everything. now, of course, they mayhave physical problems that we see manifestin older cats. but in terms ofbehavioral problems, i see a lot less when itcomes to older versus kittens, teenagers, and middle age.
so let's talk about oldercats and your household. if you work a lot,you don't really want a kitten in yourhouse, or a teenager. they're going to bedemanding of you. you've seen me do a lotof videos on play therapy, on getting energy out of cats. a 9-year-old, 10-year-oldcat, you don't really have to worry that much aboutconstantly entertaining them. of course, we want to keepthem mentally stimulated,
and physicallystimulated as well. but that doesn't meanthey demand it the way younger cats do. once you get toa certain age, it is about the pathof least resistance. and that makes for a muchcalmer house for the most part. because instead of hunt, catch,kill, eat, groom, and sleep, it's like watch someoneelse hunt, catch, and kill. and then you can eatand groom and sleep.
that is the lifeof an older cat. that's like what catretirement is all about. another advantage to anolder animal in your home-- when you get an oldercat, a senior cat, you know what you're getting. you know if they have a historywith other cats or dogs. you know how tolerant theyare of children, for instance. you know how they'llintegrate into your house, or not integrate.
when you get akitten, you're not sure what you're getting,in terms of the personality. so what you see iskind of what you get, as opposed too much younger cat. if i were an 8,9-year-old cat sitting in your house, thelast thing that i would want-- thelast thing-- would be a kitten-- thatball of energy. and we're not justtalking kitten,
we're talking about up toabout a year and a half old, that energy level will justdrive a middle aged or senior cat to distraction. so why not set them up withsomeone of their own age? we do have a problemin terms of housing older animals in this world. i mean, we've got animalsthat are doing behaviorally and physically lesswell the longer they stay in the shelter.
and, with older age, wesee less of an ability to fight things off like that. plus, they're less popular. they're not going toget adopted as fast. you have open admissionshelters that are unfortunately killing these cats. and you've got selectiveadmission shelters that say, yeah, we really can'tdo much with your 12-year-old because i don'tknow if we're going
to be able to gethim out of here. that's the realitythe situation, folks. we did touch onthis a little bit-- is there a quoteunquote "downside"? if you are adoptingan older animal, you should be able to take careof that cat, dog, or whomever. and that means that thevet bills will be higher. you do have to commit tobringing your senior cat in for an annual wellness exam.
now, i know i canget in to your head when it comes to your psyche. if you had a kittensitting here, or teenager cat, and anolder cat-- and you say, i'm going to take the kitten. and why is it youtake that kitten? well, first ofall, you don't want to be faced with thatanimal's mortality. you just don't want to giveyour heart to an animal
that you might losesooner than later. i get that. but, again, we're talkingabout expanding out our circle of compassion. the second thing is peopleare under the mistaken notion that bringing in a kitten intoa home with existing animals will be easier. there's no hard andfast about that. because they will beteenagers soon enough,
they're going to causehavoc in your home. and you're going to have aneasier time, in my opinion and in my experience, with anolder versus a younger cat. and the otherthing is, you think you might be able tomold them into the shape that you would likethem to be, as opposed to the concept of teachingan old cat, or an old dog, new tricks. we all know that's not the case.
just because a cat, ora dog, or anybody else has certain setroutines doesn't mean we can change them over time. but in the meantime, can we lookpast the cute cuddly kittens? again, i've talkedabout this a lot-- the concept of expandingyour circle of compassion-- about saying well, if i lovethis cute little cuddly kitten, do i love this8-year-old sitting here in the cage nextto the cuddly kitten?
there are so many advantagesto bringing home an older cat. now, let me just make onemore little caveat here-- just because i'm singing thepraises of older animals today does not mean i'm tellingyou not to take home the kittens and the teenagers. they all need homes, folks. they all need homes. i think in a verybig sense though, if there's an older animalsitting in the shelter
or rescue that you knowof, they need that home a little bit worseright about now. hey, by the way,people are still asking me thesupermarket questions. they're asking me verysimple behavioral questions that, guess what, i've alreadyaddressed on this very show on "cat mojo." if you will just take alook back over old episodes, you'll see that i touchon a lot of the question
that you guys might have. for instance, about catifyingyour home, the confident where. if you talk about introducingcat to cat, plenty of things that you might be having troublewith, i've already addressed. so make sure that if you find aquestion on twitter or facebook from somebody else who'sgetting really frustrated, guide them back to oldepisodes of "cat mojo." and maybe we'll helpkeep those cats in homes. and by the way, if thereis a supermarket question
that i haven't answeredyet, well then by all means, please don't hit meup at the supermarket, hit me up athashtag teamcatmojo. and that's that. all right folks,until next time, when we speak, which willbe-- oh, in just about a week's time-- begood to yourselves, be good to theanimals in your lives, and adopt yourselfan older cats,
slash dog, slash pony, slashbunny, slash something today, ok? all right. until next time, all light,all love, all mojo to you. love you guys. theme song: i'm not a bad cat-- you're a bad cat-- i'm not a bad cat-- i'm just misunderstood.
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