I grew up with a lot of older relatives around. (Three of my grandparents were from families of 8, the other was from a family of 6 - I had tons of great aunts and uncles.) We also would go and sing at various area nursing homes. By the time I was a teenager, even though I had been told that "age brings wisdom," and "old people are nice," I decided that getting old, with its accompanying illnesses and infirmities, doesn't change a person, really. It just distills one into the core being he or she has always been. So the nice people get nicer, the cranky ones get crankier, etc. No one has proved me wrong yet.

I bet it is the same for cats. Just because Ripley is old and unwell, he's still Ripley! Bare feet beware!