the old folks here and out there.

looks like life is bearing down heavy on shane this morning. he is getting so old and frail....the same is happening to jesse now too.
they are up and walking and eating and drinking and their bodies while frail are relatively well but I think they are both somewhat lost in an ancient aging shadow world.
its like they are wandering around the sidelines of life. they can see and feel it before them but they just no longer have the strength to join in.

the difference between them and Gideon is...Gideon still takes his life with him. life to him so far, is where ever he is...but shane and jesse seem to see that somehow living has moved just a few inches beyond them and I think they are yearning to be able to join back in.

makes me sad watching these two incredibly strong survivors unsure and hesitant about where their bodies now live.

extreme aging is not for the weak, and yet nature herself has made ancient bodies grow frail and weak.

it sucks.

that new old cat coming in from up north, is in one of the shelters...too frail and skinny to make it to the adoption lists. no one really knows how old he is, but he looks right now, like living has knocked all of the stuffing out of him. oh well, there could be correctible reasons for this...bad mouth, hyperthyroid, simple starvation....we will see how he does when he gets here.
hopefully he is like mac, he looked pretty damn crappy when he got here too. now he is fat, glossy, and healthy. hoping the same happens for this new old northern guy too.

and this is the real problem of senior animals trying to survive on their own. aging is hard enough but to have to do it without a good home speeds the whole unhappy process along. senior animals need special care. they need proper medical attention, medications to support them, good food, warm beds. basically to age well for as long as they can..they need someone with them who cares.
and so many have to find some way to live and die without having that.

it breaks my heart to witness the saints animals reaching their natural end of their roads. but at least they got to reach it surrounded by care. they were not left lost and alone, months and years stolen from them simply because they were left to try to survive old age on their own.