How Old is Kitty

So I've been revisiting my writing Archive after several years of neglect and I have been discovering a wealth of cool things I have kept over the years. This one was photocopied from the Minneapolis Star Tribune paper back on June 13, 1996. It was in the Fixit column. Firestar's comments will be listed in RED.

A Guide to Figuring Out a Cat's Age in Human Terms
no byline

Q: Is there a way to figure my cat's age compared to human years? Is this important? Why not compute a human's age to a cat's? What about a dog? Definitely NOT important.

A: Veterinarian Terri Derr knows of no chart that compares a cat's age to a human's. But such charts are published for dogs. Oh, talk about discrimination!

Derr said kittens generally mature more quickly than puppies That makes sense, and a cat's adulthood and middle age are longer than a dog's Sounds good, too. Also, cats tend to live longer than dogs. Well, this sounds like it might be a good article after all. purrrrr

Here is Derr's best guess for comparing cat age to human (six months for a cat is equal to 12 human years):

One year equals 18 years
Two years equal 25 years
Five years equal 35 years

(Firestar is older than 25 but less than 35
In my prime, baby
That's Bevie)

10 years equal 45 years
12 years equal 60 years
15 years equal 80 years
21 years equal 100 years

(I'm including the dog chart at Firestar's objection. Yes. I objected.)

For dogs the comparison for human years goes something like this (eight months for a dog equals 13 human years):

One year equal 16 years
Two years equal 24 years
Three years equal 28 years
Five years equal 36 years
Seven years equal 44 years
Nine years equal 52 years
11 years equal 60 years
13 years equal 68 years
15 years equal 76 years

I see no dog is likely to reach 100.
Totally makes sense. purrrr
.