Pets and life

Why is it our pets worry us, am now worried about Barney, my 18yr cat. She's now showing signs of her age, all she does is sleep and when she does wake up she is wobbly on her legs till she gets her balance. And poor little thing goes off in a trance for about 5 mins at a time.

At the moment she is fast asleep on my bed upstairs, and hasnt moved from where I left her at 10am. I am dreading going up there to see if she is still alive, just in case the worse has happened.. but I know it will happen one day, but I dont want it to happen now if you know what I mean. Barney is my baby, she's always been around.

This was taken about 6 months ago, and she shows no signs of being 18 :)

I can still remember clearly when she was a kitten, and we were moving house. D was driving along the motorway and Barney was sitting in a glass casserole dish, yep a casserole dish!! Anyway all of a sudden she got up and climbed up D and sat on the top of his head, and was quite happy there all the time he was driving. Not sure he was though..lol. She always had a dodgy hip when she was a baby, and we were forever having to pop it back in for her..but in her later years she hasnt shown any signs of this problem ever coming back. She's been a really healthy cat all her 18 years, only ever having cat flu once and that was about 3 years ago and she shook it off like it was just a cold..bless her. She did frighten me when she was about 8yr though, I found her hanging upside down from our cherry tree in the old house, her leg was caught in the branches and she was just hanging there. Managed to get her down and all she did was sit under a chair for a couple or hours then she was as right as rain, didnt even need to go to the vets.. typical of Barney..lol.