Cat thinkies—shock of the aging body

A cat contemplates her shadow and thinks, Sometimes my shadow shocks me. It looks so old!

Ursula the cat suddenly sees her shadow and doesn’t recognise herself. Is there another cat, a mangy old cat, in the apartment? Later, after she recovers from the shock, we must have a heart to heart about the perils of ageism—and the alternatives.

18 thoughts on “Cat thinkies—shock of the aging body

  1. Rachel, you are a hoot! Ursula is much, too much like me. Just came across a recent picture and enlarged it? Whoa! Yes, that rethinking rears its insistent head indeed. My condolences to Ursula. Let us know if she comes up with any new wisdom.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      Grace,how brave of you to enlarge a recent photo. Yes, I have done that! Always a surprise. The upside is finding I look more like my big sister, who us beautiful. What a capacity we have to hold on to incompatible self images. How funny we are!

  2. Katrina says:

    Haha – I can relate to that initial shock of sometimes seeing ourselves exactly as we are! The ‘seeing’ is not always a visual thing either – but it certainly wakes us up.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      Katrina, hmm, not always a visual thing? You’re so right.

  3. That made me smile over my breakfast coffee. Thank you. Indeed, as whitehairgrace so aptly puts it, you are a hoot… but more than that, you skewer us beautifully with graceful humour. XX

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      Thank you dear Maggie…although it’s myself I’m aiming at.

  4. colonialist says:

    I can identify with that! At close to 80, one starts finding the mirror gives unfamiliar images. If one’s eyes still work well enough, that is!

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      Luckily your sense of humour is still as good as new.

  5. Joared says:

    I know it’s me when I look in the mirror but ever since my natural red hair evolved into what I call gray or white (my hairdresser says it’s blond) I just don’t think it’s the real me somehow. What happened to smooth skin as the cells cease to self-repair and some appear to become barnacles? Poor Ursula — what she must be experiencing, too.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      My own identity crisis escalates because I am face blind. So who’s that?

  6. JOY journal says:

    Ursula, take heart. Mangy, old cats can get away with yowling their minds. This is not a bad trade off in the end. 🙂

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      I will pass this wise advice on to Ursula. She may not be quite ready to hear it yet.

  7. Elizabeth says:

    I posted a picture of myself looking in the mirror as a toddler. Apparently I was just as perplexed then.

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      That is one extraordinary photo!

      1. Elizabeth says:

        The sight must have intrigued my mom.

  8. Sue Slaght says:

    Oh this is so true and not just for cats. Nothing like looking at your phone and suddenly the camera is on you. Who is that old person on the screen? 🙂

    1. Rachel McAlpine says:

      Phones are cruel. Luckily Ursula doesn’t have one.

  9. Wendy says:

    Mother nature softens the blow though with failing eyesight 🙂

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