The myth of one year of cat (or dog) life is equivalent to seven years of human life has now been debunked because it makes no sense. There are many cats that live to be 18 or 19, but how often do you encounter 126-year-old or 133-year-old humans?
The fact is, cats age more rapidly in their early years, then slower as they age. For example, cats can reproduce when they are 6 months old. If you used the ‘one year equals seven years’ formula, it would suggest that humans could reproduce at the age of 3½. A more realistic comparison would be that a 6-month-old cat is similar to a 15-year-old-person.
At 1 year of age, cat’s bones stop growing. This happens in humans around age 24, so to think of, a 1-year-old cat is equivalent to a 24-year-old person. From this point on, no major physiologic milestones occur (such as menopause in women), so it can be hard to say precisely how they age in their later years. Therefore a 20-year-old cat is about as common (or rare) as a 100-year-old person.
If this premise is accepted, than a chart of cat age versus human age would look like the one hereunder.
Cat Age 6 months 1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years 6 years 7 years 8 years 9 years 10 years 11 years 12 years 13 years 14 years 15 years 16 years 17 years 18 years 19 years 20 years ![]() | Human Age 15 years 24 years 28 years 32 years 36 years 40 years 44 years 48 years 52 years 56 years 60 years 64 years 68 years 72 years 76 years 80 years 84 years 88 years 92 years 96 years 100 years ![]() |

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