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.

中文翻译：

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老朋友是最好的朋友：人类和宠物衰老的反叙事


这项研究探讨了非营利性动物救援组织为鼓励收养老年狗和猫而合作构建的老龄化反叙事——老朋友成为最好的朋友。对组织网站的文本分析揭示了挑战负面假设和改变公众情绪的三种协调策略：教育和宣传、支持服务以及诉诸利他主义。这些组织共同认可老年宠物可能受到伤害，但始终具有复原力，值得照顾，并且仍然能够过有意义的生活。通过这样做，它们破坏了衰老作为衰退的主导脚本，并为晚年的人与动物关系提供了支持。最终，这种反叙事使宠物和人类衰老的生活现实正常化：它通过倡导老年动物和宠物在晚年的监护来捍卫老年的承诺，并通过提供经济、物质和物质支持来承认老年的固有挑战。和情感资源来管理老年宠物、老年人的护理以及维持他们的关系。