Adult cats

A grown cat asks for little, but it asks for that little every day. This section is about ordinary life: how a city cat differs from a suburban one and from a cat in the countryside, how to brush one and when a bath is actually called for, how to trim claws and what to play. The last three articles are about old age, about why cats go off alone to die, and about the hardest decision an owner ever has to make.

• Life in the city A cat adapts to almost anywhere, and a big city is no obstacle to it — on one condition: that it never goes out on the street.
• Life in the suburbs The suburbs are more dangerous than the city: owners think the yard is quiet and the neighbours nice, and let the cat out. What follows.
• Life in the countryside Houses on plots of several acres, quiet lanes, no traffic — and yet the countryside holds plenty of dangers of its own for a cat.
• Brushing A cat grooms itself, and does it well, but it still needs help — a long-haired one most of all. What to brush it with, and how often.
• Bathing It is hard to say who hates bath time more, the cat or the owner. How to wash one anyway, and why starting young makes it far easier.
• Trimming the claws If a cat has been used to having its paws touched since kittenhood, trimming its claws is no battle. How to teach a grown cat as well.
• Exercises and games A cat's energy has to go somewhere: either you offer the games or you live with the ones it invents. Exercise for a cat that stays indoors.
• The problems of old age A cat's first year equals fifteen human ones, its second twenty-four. How to count the age, and what ailments come with old age.
• Dying alone Cats leave home before they die, and it wounds their owners. Why they do it, and what actually lies behind the habit.
• How to say “Goodbye” Living with an animal has two hard sides: it does not live as long as we do, and the decision to end its suffering is ours. On that last day.