When your senior kid goes wandering

Anna the Terrible earned her name from the way she attacked the dogs. No one, except K, the maid assigned to feed her and one small dog, would go near her.

Anna was about the age of my old lady Susu, and I enviously watched the movies K took of this cat, still lovely even though she was approaching 20 years old.

Both K and I fed our senior citizens catfood specially developed for elderly cats. Anna was healthy enough not to need any special vitamins or supplements, but Susu still needs a supplement specifically developed to strengthen her bones and ligaments since she suffers from deformed hind legs, the result of childhood injuries.

This supplement is really expensive, made from New Zealand green mussels. I dissolve the capsule in her food, and then Susu, who’s not a picky eater, slurps it up when she has her food.

It seems to be working well. If, for some reason, I stop giving it to her, within a day or so, I can see painful changes in the way she walks.

It’s good for dogs, too. Whenever Wan-Wan, my poodle pup, twists her leg or injures her knee, her vet surgeon also prescribes this supplement. Wan, though, is a picky eater. She will not take the capsule with her food. I have to wait until she finishes her meal and has her treat. Then she’ll take the capsule – as long as I give her another treat.

A few months ago, K decided to move Anna down from the top floor of her house to a room in the same compound. When Anna was younger, she used to live in this room, and K thought she’d be happy having access to the garden, where she could prowl under the bushes.

By that time, K had hired a new maid who didn’t know Anna very well. “Just make sure the cat’s okay,” K told her.

At first, Anna, remembering her old room, enjoyed hiding in the bushes, but the new maid didn’t realise that day by day, the old cat was wandering further and further away.

Perhaps your senior kids like to wander. For sure, Susu tries going downstairs every once in a while - or perhaps she simply forgets that her legs don’t work the way they used to.

Unfortunately, one day last week, Anna didn’t come back for her evening meal. The maid thought she was just sleeping somewhere, but she never returned.

By the time the maid told K, it was too late. Anna had somehow wandered out to the soi, where she had been hit and killed by a car.

We can only hope that she died instantly, that she didn’t suffer.