I've posted on here before about LandingCat - he's 18, a big softie. I've had him all his life, well before meeting DH, so he is very much my cat - though he loves DH and DDs and will happily come to be petted and sit on their laps, he tolerates much more from me so I'm the one who clips his claws, combs his tangles out when he can't manage the tricky bits, and gives him his pills twice a day. He always let me pick him up for a cuddle too, but let's me know when he wants down by getting restless or occasionally hissing. He doesn't really like anyone else picking him up, but will put up with it briefly if DH has to do it.
Obviously, he's getting on a bit now, and has a couple of chronic health conditions, including being a bit stiff and sore, as you'd expect at his age. We always said we'd keep him going as long as his medication was giving him good quality of life and all has gone well so far, but this morning when I picked him up to give him his pre breakfast pills, his claw got stuck in my dressing gown and when I tried to gently remove it to put him down, he sunk his teeth into my thumb. He's not been a biter to date - a couple of playful nips from time to time when overstimulated - although I have been properly bitten once before when he got very distressed at a vet visit.
This was not playful: it was a hard bite. It was very sore and I am now sporting three puncture wounds, one fairly deep, slathered in antiseptic.
DH now wants to have 'a serious talk' later, and I'm pretty sure from what he's already said that his view will be that if LandingCat is hurting enough to retaliate like that he's in pain and isn't having the quality of life we thought he did. He also feels that we can't risk him biting the DC.
My view is that he's old and less tolerant and we have to be more mindful of that. The girls already know not to lift him, and I just need to be extra careful. He doesn't go outside much these days, unless with one of us, and can't manage to get up on the window ledge without a lower piece of furniture to act as a ladder, and he sleeps a lot, but he can still jump up on the back of the sofa to his favourite sunspot, he tears about like a kitten every so often for no reason at all, and likes to come up and snuggle with us all in the evenings if we're watching TV. He still has a good appetite. He seems to me to be doing pretty well for his age, all in all, and this to me is an isolated (though not unique) incident which I've already accepted and forgiven.
Am I deluded? Is it a sign he's had enough and would it be kinder to let him go? It sounds OTT but I love him like a third child and I don't want to allow selfishness to get in the way of doing the right thing for him.