Lament of a very old lady

I am Phoebe. I'm a very old lady. I'm 19 which is really old for a Himalayan cat and I am told is equivalent to more than 90 in human years. This is photo shows how I now spend every day-curled up asleep on the sofa-my favourite sofa.
 Like very old people us old cats like our routine. I am really set in my ways nowadays. I wake up at close to 4.30am and start bellowing to wake my human slaves. They usually manage to resist until about 5.00am when the old male human turns up downstairs to give me my breakfast. Then I go to the box. I have very regular bowel habits you understand. Then I ask the male human slave to let me out onto the deck. Most days in winter it is way too cold to stay outside so I wait until the slave is a decent distance from the door and I bellow to be let in. He always complies. So well trained.
After that it's a quick visit to clean up any left over scraps of breakfast and then I climb up on the sofa to start my day long nap. A girl has to get her beauty sleep you understand. I used to spring up onto the kitchen bench but nowadays sometimes even a climb onto the sofa is a big effort. I wish that I was not so old.
Of course life has not been quite the same since I lost my little friend Zoe back in May. I did not think that I would miss her so much but I do. She was no trouble and she was a lovely friend.
I sleep all day with occasional visits to the water bowl and maybe a trip to the box for a pee. As a very important old cat I do insist on the highest standards of cleanliness and if my box needs the litter changing I draw the humans' attention to their sloppy standards by peeing on the floor next to the box. Fortunately the human training has been a very succesful program and I have not had to resort to this disapproval signal for some time.
I wake up from my beauty sleep at around 5.00pm and ask for dinner by standing to attention next to the food bowl. It always works a treat. Then it's a short excursion onto the deck again keeping the humans on their toes by going out of one door and demanding to come in through another.
Then it's more dinner followed by the evening TV curled up next to the male human on the sofa. I really like to be tickled under the chin and stroked slowly and if he gets bored doing it or is non compliant by trying to read I do find that a sharp tap with a paw soon brings him into line. I fall asleep during the evening or so he thinks but really I am waiting for him to go to bed. I wait until he's been in bed for about ten minutes and then I really start bellowing and demanding attention. The humans always ignore me so sometimes when I feel upto it I go upstairs in the dark which I hate nowadays-and climb onto their bed and demand attention. After about 5 minutes I call it a day and go downstairs to sleep myself although nowadays I do get lonely in the night and often wake up and shout for a human. It sometimes works.
The humans say that I am doing really well but I still wish that I was not so old. Phoebe