Abstract
This study examines the counter-narrative of aging—Old Friends Make the Best Friends—that nonprofit animal rescue organizations collaboratively construct to encourage the adoption of senior dogs and cats. Textual analysis of organizational websites revealed three coordinated strategies for challenging negative assumptions and changing public sentiment: education and advocacy, supportive services, and appeals to altruism. Together, the organizations endorse senior pets as potentially damaged but always resilient, deserving of care and still capable of meaningful life. In doing so, they disrupt dominant scripts of aging as decline with support for the human-animal bond in later life. Ultimately, this counter-narrative normalizes the lived realities of aging for pets and people: It champions the promises of old age by advocating for senior animals and pet guardianship in later life, and it acknowledges the inherent challenges of old age by providing financial, material, and emotional resources to manage the care of senior pets, older adults, and the relationships that sustain them.
Published Version
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