Pan AKA Panther, Panorama, Pandemic, Panacea, Panache, is the oldest of the cats here and the one who has been here the longest. →[More:]She is not a feral but a pet who was spayed and somehow ended up living on the street. Angry and independent, she keeps people and other cats at a distance.

She has been beaten up by other bigger stronger cats but she has never been beaten. My yard, her home, has always stayed her territory with challengers quickly or slowly backing down. Over the years she has on very cold nights allowed other cats to share a house but they quickly learn to sleep in their own house and keep their distance as soon as the temperature warms again.

Over the last couple of years she has been showing her age. She is slower and seems a bit arthritic. In 2021 she went deaf. This fall her appetite has been slowing and I think her kidneys are going.

A few months ago she started something new. She began purring when I gave her her breakfast. More recently she started talking to me at breakfast. Staring at me and making crazy loud mroww sounds. I guess the volume is due to her deafness. This week she has been coming to me and standing a few feet away and yowling at me.

Thursday the 22nd after breakfast I put out a carrier and added a bit of mackerel. She looked at it and howled. She walked around the carrier and then went in. I closed the door and she made no fuss. I brought her in.

I left the carrier in the porch and Possum was the first to check it out. He started through the cat door and Pan let out a huge yowl. He backed away. Possum is the only cat I have ever seen who can walk backwards. Not just a couple of steps but fully walk backwards. He moved from the cat door, across the office, and out of the room backwards.

Caspar heard the commotion and came and paced back and forth in the office. He was concerned but not enough to go out to the porch. Nora slept though it all.

Pan is installed in the isolation room. She has been quiet and calm spending most of her time sleeping. I am not sure what will happen. I don't know how long she will live but long or short at least she will not die alone.

The reaction of the other three is interesting. Since I let Pan out of the carrier none of them has gone upstairs to look in on her. When Nora was in there Caspar was always watching. When Possum was in there Nora and Caspar were both there. I think they do not want to risk upsetting the beast.