...and bless her, she's still trucking. My 13-year-old obese kitty is newly arthritic. Wondering if any fellow cat people with elderly cats have any advice on anything I can do to make her life a bit easier?
I have one live to 20, but it was all her doing. She nearly died as a kitten, and just refused to pass on. She had arthritis in her back legs, so I got a kitty condo-thingie she could climb up on easily and step from there to the couch. Like the version here but without the perch:
http://coolkittycondos.com/cat-condos/grreat-choice%C2%AE-kitty-condo-with-perch/
If she gets up on the bed, do something similar (I had a chest at the foot of the bed she could climb up on).
My cat wasn't an alpha female, she was queen.
Awesome. I'm glad your cat is still going strong. We're very much cat people in the Grey household and had an old campaigner for years and years. I think DG's advice is good. That's more or less what we did. Also, be sure you take whatever advice your vet gives.
Oh, don't let the cat know what you are doing.
If you don't have a cat, you will think I'm being silly. If you have a cat...
Ha! True.