Even Cats Are Living Longer

Dan Poynter knows I am a longevity expert and sent me a copy of his new book, The Older Cat, to review. This is a very loving book about how to help your cat live a long life, be Florence Nightingale to your cat when she is ill, and make difficult decisions about when and how to let go when your cat is dying.

I was struck with his statistics about cat longevity. Outdoor cats only have a life expectancy of 3 years. In 1930 indoor cats had a life expectancy of 8 years. Today, well-cared-for neutered indoor cats have a life expectancy of 15-17 years. The oldest documented cat age is 34 years. As our longevity increases, its nice to know that our pets can live longer too.

Dan also tickled my funny bone with his description of cats: “Cats do not think that they are little people. They think that we are big cats. This influences their behavior in many ways. When we provide food, they admire us and think we are great hunters.”

Why are cats living longer? Largely for the same reasons we humans are. Most of us have indoor jobs and don’t have to worry about predators trying to kill us and eat us. We have much better healthcare and we know a lot more about how to take care of ourselves and our cats.

Living longer needs to be about quality of life, not just logging more years. For those who love life and are fortunate to have good health, it is important that we don’t believe ourselves out of all of the quality years that are possible.

Believing something doesn’t necessarily make it so, but it creates the possibility. People used to think the 4-minute mile was a limitation handed down by God. Within a year of Roger Bannister breaking through that limiting belief, 37 other runners ran sub 4-minute miles. This year a high school student ran it at 3 minutes and 53.43 seconds. As Ghandi put it, "Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning."

The current “4-minute mile” for human longevity is 122 years. Americans’ life expectancy increased 64% in the last hundred years (from 47 years to 77 years) and the trend is likely to continue. Scientific advances, genetic engineering, tissue engineering, new hormone therapies, and a likely cure for Alzheimer’s disease will push life expectancy close to 100 and have many people living to 150 or longer.

In the last 40 years Americans’ per capita income, adjusted for inflation, doubled, giving us more resources to pursue mentally and physically healthy lifestyles. Fifty years ago televisions had small black and white screens, three stations, and signed off at midnight or earlier. There were only sixty vacuum tubed computers in the world and they often required a whole room to do a fraction of what can be done on a palm sized computer today. Our information resources are phenomenal. Scientific advances are trickling down at a much faster rate, e.g., Lasik eye surgery which has only been around for about a decade is now available for $489 an eye. Taking note of these advances helps you believe you can live longer and healthier.

If we want to live longer, we need to believe we can. George Burns booked a show in Las Vegas for his hundredth birthday, did the show, but died later that year. I can’t help think that this very vital man might have lived longer and brought joy to many if he had also booked his next ten birthdays.