Well, well looked after in-door ones can. Average life expectancy of an outdoor cat is 8 years IIRC. (Just average obviously, my Ginger roamed (and fought and etc. etc.) freely for 12 years before becoming a (still sometimes grumpy but adapting finally) indoor cat with only supervised (albeit extensive) garden time. (Garden mostly cat-proofed unless you leave him alone too long... )
But he's a pretty damn clever cat...have literally seen him sitting at the side of the busy road he crossed several times daily, (at our old place) waiting for a gap he could cross in.
And yeah, the GF's grandmother was the same...when her last dog died, she said she wouldn't get another because she wouldn't want her pet to outlive her.
Happiest stories from the vets were always the ones where we eventually had to euthanase an old animal that had spent his/her entire life with the same family. Much rarer than you'd think. The oldest animals at shelters are always the ones they have most problems rehoming, and as one gets older these are the ones that we should consider. It's a fine thing to give them a last few years of love and stability before they go. Many will have been passed from pillar to post for their entire lives. They really respond to the care they have missed out on.
President of Peace? You fucking idiots!
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
My wife and I went to one of the many Octoberfest's they have around here. We met up with my BIL and SIL and drank a few beers and ate some brats and metts. A friend of my BIL saw him and came over and was talking to us, he mentioned his wife has Alzheimer's. A bit later they (he and his wife) came over to our table together. At first I thought, well she seems pretty with it and she introduced herself to me and she asked me if I spoke German. I said no, and then went to the area where the car show was going on. I came back, and she introduced herself to me and asked me if I spoke German. Later on, I went to get a beer, chatted with some people on the way back, and sat down. She introduced herself to me and asked if I spoke German, then she said, I think there are people at this table I don't know. So we sat there for a while and she started to get odd and paranoid. She kept trying to speak German to me and got irritated when I kept saying, I don't understand. A bit later they were giving out the awards from the car show so I turned around to watch and try to hear who won. She grabbed me by the arm and said something unintelligible. I said, "I'm trying to see who won the classic car awards" and she said "I know what you are doing and its bullshit". I said again, "I want to see who is getting awards", she again said... "that's BS I know what you are doing." At that point I just told my wife, we need to go ahead and go, so shook hands with everyone and left.
I cant imagine having to live with someone in that condition. I knew it was bad, but having never really spent any time with someone with that condition, well it was eye opening and very very sad.
We miss you Tracie but your Spirit will always shine brightly on the Watch
I was alone
For fifty-four years
Born in solitary confinement
Never a moment of friendship
Or connection
Or love
On the outside looking in
With my family
Never joy or happiness
When they did well
When they celebrated
When they laughed
I couldn't share
Never sorrow
Or grief
Or tears
When one of them died
My cousin
At twelve
Her brother
At forty-nine
Our grandmother
At ninety-three
I look at them
My parents
My aunts and uncles
My siblings
Perhaps
And I know
I will feel nothing
Asperger's
Thirty-six
When I finally learned the term
Found the answer
Could stop feeling guilty
That I couldn't feel
At fifty-four
I was at peace with it
Then you
Luck
Happenstance
A loophole
I cheated
Without knowing it
I had one chance
Ever
In my entire life
To do what I did
Forty years
To sneak past Asperger's
Without it noticing
Bit by bit
Drop by drop
You made your way around the damage
You made it past the Wall
That locks me in
And locks everyone else out
The Wall
The isolation
The emptiness
The itch you cannot scratch
Punished for nothing
For being born a little wrong
I couldn't laugh
I couldn't love
I couldn't hurt
Not the way your kind does it
So easily
Until you
Until every day was pain
And grief
And sorrow
And longing
And love
Until every day
Was about you
Be careful what you wish for
But that's not fair
The pain
Might be all I ever have
But it is better
Than the emptiness
A life
Filled
With pain
A heart
Filled
With sorrow
And grief
And agony
And love
The insane
Impossible
Unbelievable
Success
I am in love with you
All my days are yours
If you ever want them
If you ever see this
If you ever understand
What you did
What it means
I love you
Always
And forever
"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put."
It’s been a tough couple of months. My father had a stroke in early September and passed away the weekend before Halloween. His decline was like how Hemingway described bankruptcy; gradually then suddenly. He was not at all himself his last ten days.
The last two weeks have been taken up with the innumerable issues that are involved in wrapping up a life. But the visitation and celebration of life are today, and afterwards a sense of a return to routine is coming. Were planning on driving out to Montana for Thanksgiving at my wife’s parents.
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.
So sorry it's was rough like that. It's not easy under the best of circumstances. I know you well enough to know that you'll smile and laugh at the story you beheld. But it'll still be rough. Have an excellent Thanksgiving.
All lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest -Paul Simon
No, the bunny is not to blame for such political events.
In the GCES ("Global Council for Earth and Space", our thinly-veiled-SRD-themed politics subforum), opinions vary as to what actually happened, but rabbits are never mentioned in that regard.
Love prevails.
~ Tracie Mckinney-Hammon
Change is not a process for the impatient.
~ Barbara Reinhold
Well, it's that time of year again when I feel increasingly unmotivated to do anything at all. On leave from the end of this week until 6th Jan, so looking forward to a nice prolonged period of doing as little as I can get away with, and sleeping late.
It’s been a mixed morning so far, and I haven’t even been awake an hour yet.
Good news is Social Security has approved my Medicare application and I have been issued my Medicare number for coverage to start next month. I need to go to DSHS to apply for Senior Medicaid (as my standard adult Medicaid ends at the end of next month) and for assistance with premiums and deductibles.
Bad news is Beorn’s Hanukkah present was supposed to be delivered yesterday. I even received an email from USPS to expect delivery by 9 PM. It didn’t arrive.
This morning Informed Delivery shows the last time the package was scanned was in Colorado on Sunday, and the update says “arriving late, expected delivery unknown.” I reached out to the company who mailed it, but haven’t heard back and honestly don’t expect anything from them since they mailed it out on time.
Average life expectancy of an outdoor cat is 8 years IIRC. (Just average obviously, my Ginger roamed (and fought and etc. etc.) freely for 12 years before becoming a (still sometimes grumpy but adapting finally) indoor cat with only supervised (albeit extensive) garden time. (Garden mostly cat-proofed unless you leave him alone too long... 
