Talking to an older cat
My cat Toby is an older gent. Come October (2017) he’ll be thirteen years old. I heard myself saying to him “Good boy,” after he did something sweet, as he frequently does.
Addressing an older cat
I calculate 1 cat year equals 5 human years, which means for Toby, when he celebrates his birthday, he’ll be 65 years old in human years. So is it appropriate to address him as “boy”?
I think not.
Hence, I now refer to him as “cat-man”.
So now I say “Toby, you’re a good cat-man.”