our daughter in law had an orange tabby named Miss Kitty and when she died she was in her mid-late 20's. funny thing is, until the last year or so of her life Miss Kitty was full of life, loads of energy and always had a nice healthy weight. when linda was over in iraq and then gitmo, we had Miss Kitty for 28 months and she had my 7 cats (yes i had 7 of my own at one point) terrorized. miss kitty became the ruler of the house while she was here. i have a special place in my heart for old critters, i had an old arab mare that i literally rescued from the meat man when she was 17 (she died at 30) and she just had the best personality, seems like the elderly animals just have so much character (not that the young ones dont)