Well he might have just been older. Stray cats usually have shorter life spans not only for accidents occuring but just the strain of always living a harder life, over indoor cats. From your description of him, he seemed like a pretty battle worn cat. As cannabis suggested a war vet of sorts. Look at it this way too, by taking him in and caring for him you not only gave him love and attention he probably wanted/needed but you probably extended his life a couple years at least and they sound like they were happy years for him.

I've lost 2 cats in the last 4 years. 2 years ago I lost my 5-6 year old cat Clea (a stray I took in as well) to cancer. A year or so before that I lost my cat Bear that I had in the family all the teen years, he died of old age, he was 13 (A persian so it's normal for his breed)
Melkane Reviewed by Melkane on . RIP Osama Let me give you a little back ground on our beloved cat Osama. When we first bought this place and moved in we unknowingly adopted a cat. He wasn't very friendly at first, never let us get within 10 feet of him, and would kick our dogs asses and our other cats asses. We named him Osama because he was like a terrorist and would ambush all the other animals. Osama only had three legs and he was a huge tom cat his head was like a soft ball. Over the course of 4 years he has become Rating: 5