all to make her aging as realistic as possible <3 partial blindness: maplestar sees the blurry shapes of cats as well as the color of their fur, so still being able to discern who the cat might be. even though, especially walking through the woods, she’ll often trip, stumble and catch herself on branches, thorns and other things that one might trip / scratch themselves on. her cornea will appear more milky or blue as well as the pupil can happen to appear larger than another or just stay large in general. swelling can happen around the eye as well as redness and inflammation. discoloration and spots are also common as well with cats with partial blindness. maplestar will get scared more easily, misjudge distances, and be extremely cautious of how she walks. maple will struggle reading sign language, as seen below, so she will often ask cats to repeat gestures so she can see it clearer. partial deafness: until her death, maplestar will slowly overtime lose her hearing. most of the time the words will just be muffled. she'll hear loud noises, and if someone yells loud at her, but if someone whispers, or even talks at a normal tone it'll be difficult for her to hear. maplestar knows sign language and she has since she was young because her own son, charadecharm used it. though she'll try to talk some days, it'll mostly be sign language she communicates in, especially towards the end of her life. sometimes if she can't see because of her partial blindness, she'll just ask for the cat she is speaking to to speak in a louder tone so that she might be able to hear them, especially if they don't know sign language. maplestar might often get confused on where sounds are coming from and misinterpret the direction as well as get startled more easily, just like she might if she can't see someone. maplestar will rely on vibrations to feel if someone is coming, or If she has to hunt for herself, the vibrations of the animal on the ground as best as she can. her voice might be louder than usual because she can't hear it as well. arthritis: maplestar already lately has had problems moving, especially since she's... almost 200 moons old. but arthritis can have subtle changes in movement or dramatic changes. for maple it will be more subtle since she's had the feeling of stiffness, soreness for a while it's just getting a little worse now. maplestar won't be good at going up hills or anything steep as well as having difficulty climbing anything whether its a small ledge or a tree. often after she sleeps, rests or just getting up maple will feel stiff and sore around her joints. her hind legs might look thinner than usual with the reduced use, though maple will still try to take walks every day to see if the soreness will get any better. some parts of her coat might end up slightly matted but she does her best to keep it as fluffy as possible, even if she can't reach spots or its painful to. dementia: since this affects up to 50% of cats ages 15 and older I thought it would be good to add this in as well. this is also known as feline cognitive dysfunction. as maplestar gets even older, she'll have extreme sleep changes that can be abrupt and sometimes even awkward, sleeping from midday to midnight and then staying up again all the way until midnight just to wake up at dawn. some days she'll sleep all day and wake up at night. maplestar might some days get stuck somewhere that she doesn't know how to maneuver out of, especially if she stays a loner. she'll get confused and wonder where she might be, even if it /is/ familiar to her. cats can also become unusually clingy to other cats or companions during this time which is something maplestar kinda already is but it'll just be a little more intense. maple might just stare into space for long periods of time or even constantly groom the same spot, just forgetting that she already did. maple might misjudge distances, and especially with her partial blindness, she'll be extremely careful not to take any jumps. if anyone has any other things that are often common signs of old age in cats pls let me know!! I would love to research them <3
