I'm hoping we can share some observations & advice about keeping older cats healthy.

My Ingrid is 14; she'll be 15 in mid-October. (So I guess she's a Libra?)

Ingrid never goes outside, so she's never had any wounds or rough experiences. My vet says she can't believe Ingrid is 14, which is great. I can't see any signs that she's older except for a couple of things:
-- a small tuft of gray fur next to her bottom;
-- a slight tick of bursitis in her left shoulder.

So every time Ingrid has a bad week with hairballs or whatever, I'm concerned, because I've heard that once a cat gets to a certain age (different for every cat, the same as people), they can go downhill fast. And to face facts, of course, I know that eventually I will have to make a very diffcult decision that I'd much rather never have to deal with; I just hope that that's a long, long way off, and that when it happens I'm able to keep in mind preserving her dignity as best we can.

Does anybody have any tips about specific things I should be careful to watch for? Although cats are secretive, I think she'd try to tell me if something were wrong, and I'd hate to miss the message if she were in trouble.

I feed Ingrid Iams food (some wet, some dry--the hairball formula), and I've also got her one of those motorized filter fountains for her drinking water--although naturally she ignores that & prefers to drink from the bathtub or the sink, becausae she thinks there are springs in those places.

Thanks!