As Timothy noted, Sheila wrote the character.
The section on magical cats in the book is by Timothy, however.
Animals vary a great deal in age. Virgil is 2, for example, and cats live up to 12 years on average more or less. Certain birds can live up to 80 years IIRC.
I think that animals will not be awarded experience points according to the human scale depicted in ArM5. They will be awarded with a lump sum of XP to spend depending on their "season". Easier to manage than recording their ages.
I doubt we will be able to make 600 year old dragons using the same scale, though. Dragons are mythical creatures, so I would generate them with as many XP (or as few) to depict them like the awesome beasts that they truly are. Until you take the penetration rules and discover than pan caudarax (or the archangel Michael) is a joke if you invest a little effort in taking him down. 
Certain XP per season of the character (maybe deflected by species of the creature) sounds cool to me.
Cheers,
Xavi
Seconded, vigorously.
Though that doesn't have a lot to do with RoP: Magic, per se; the problem is edition-wide.
Mmmh, a few changements and we could insert Greebo, Gytha Ogg's cat 
Lol, maybe "you there", the only cat scaring Greebo to run off (from "Wintersmith").
No, its perfectly fine. Otherwise brute force counts more than skill(or chance), and thats extremely unrealistic.
And brute force already counts in what weapons a character can use. Not as badly as in IronClaw, but it does count some.
[quote="Reis Tahlen"]
Mmmh, a few changements and we could insert Greebo, Gytha Ogg's cat
Nice idea!
Not quite what I had in mind as the character concept, but probably a lot more annoying than Virgil for the magi and other covenant inhabitants!
Welcome aboard Sheila!
I like Virgil heaps: congrats on him. 
Thank you on both counts, Timothy.
Welcome. Always nice to see fellow gamers around (and authors!). Hope you enjoy the stay.
Cheers,
Xavi