I had a cat that made it to 18. Sis had one that made it to 21.
My friend had a cat that lived to 21 years old. He was still chasing balls around the house up until 2 days before he died.
I think our pets are living longer thanks to better diets and advances in veterinary care. Many of the discoveries in human medicine have been applied successfully to our critters too.
Our oldest cat was our first one, Tiger. She passed away at 19-1/2.
We had a few die young. They were strays who were sick, weren’t
responding to treatments, and had to be euthanized.
My sister had one that made it to 22, a Siamese-Tabby mix. She lost her sight, but she just meowed really loud to “echolocate” herself around the house.
I had never heard of a cat doing that. Isn’t that seriously cool?