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An ageing animal does not ask for help: it stops doing whatever has become difficult. These six things it gives up are signals, and each one is offset by an adjustment that takes a few minutes.
1. Climbing up where it used to climb
The sofa, the bed, the windowsill: it gives up in stages. First it climbs in two moves, then it needs a run-up, then it stops climbing at all — and the household notices only at the last stage.
A halfway step, or a steady stool, makes the climb effortless. It is a 5-minute change that gives the animal one of its places back.
2. Hearing you arrive
An animal that no longer comes to greet you, that startles when you touch it, that no longer responds to its name: the usual conclusion is indifference that comes with age. Far more often, it is hearing loss.
The test is done out of its field of vision, with a sharp noise. If it does not react, adapting how you communicate — hand signals, vibrations through the floor — is better than raising your voice.
3. Playing the way it used to
Play does not disappear with age, it changes shape: less chasing, more searching; less jumping, more gentle chewing. An older animal offered nothing but the old game looks like an animal that has stopped playing.
This matters beyond enjoyment: mental activity slows cognitive decline, and it is one of the few things you can act on.
4. Grooming everywhere
In cats especially, the hard-to-reach areas — lower back, flanks, base of the tail — stop being kept up. The coat there turns dull and matted.
Brushing takes over what it no longer does, and it serves a second purpose: it is the moment you find the lumps and the sore spots you would not see otherwise.
5. Lasting through the night
An older animal that soils itself at night is not regressing: its ability to hold on is fading, sometimes because of an illness that can be treated. That is a reason to see a vet, never a reason to tell it off.
In the meantime, a late trip outside and easier access to the litter tray or the door prevent most accidents — and the humiliation that so often comes with them for the animal.
6. Finding its bearings
Standing facing a wall, looking for the way out on the wrong side of a door, no longer finding its bowl: these are signs of cognitive decline, common and long overlooked because they get put down to tiredness.
It is the one item on this list that must not wait. Caught early, cognitive decline can be slowed; caught late, there is no making it up.
What these six signals have in common
None of them speaks up. An older animal asks for nothing: it drops from its life whatever has become difficult, and the household registers only the absence.
Useful observation, then, is not about hunting for symptoms, but about noticing what it no longer does. It is a different kind of attention, and it is the one that catches things a year earlier.