Is our cat dying? Please read and help

Greetings, my fiancee and I have an older cat, 17 years old. Over the past couple of months, he has began to noticably loose weight, yet his eatting habbits seem to be the same. He sleeps all day and night, not too playful anymore but does desire attention and affection almost daily for shot spans of time.

The past few days, we noticed that his urine smells a lot stronger than normal, about 2-3 times as potent, yet his water intake is still about the same (one bowl every day or two). He has also had difficulty making it to the litter box, and has had a few bowel movements in the other rooms. Today, when he did this, there was blood in the stool, almost mucus-like around some of the fecal matter. To the best of my knowledge, he has never had blood in his feces.

We are making an appointment to take him to the vet this weekend, but was curious if these were signs of old age and eventually death. If you would, please provide response and share your experiences that may assist us in this matter.

Thank you all, and best wishes.

I would try and get him in quicker than the weekend if he belonged to me, especially considering the age and all the problems you have noticed almost all at once. The vet should do a full work-up including bloodwork, because as cats age, their internal organs begin to malfunction. I hope you can make an appointment quicker than Saturday.

Stong smelling urine and "accidents" on the floor could mean a urinary tract infection. This is EXTREMELY painful even though cats don't usually show it. For your cats sake get him to the vet ASAP. Infections that start in the bladder can spread to the kidneys or cause crystals to form in the urine which may result in a blocked kitty! You may be saving yourself a lot of $$$ by getting your cat to the vet earlier rather than later. Clinics often take "drop offs" so if you have to work, you can drop him off, they will do an exam... and you can pick him up on your way home.
-Meghan

PLEASE GET BACK TO ME AS I JUST NOTICED THIS POST AND YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER. I always try to get my cats in sooner rather than later. Sometimes it's nothing, but in your case, there's definitely a problem going on. We had this sort of problem lately and it ended up being roundworm. It took a long course of anitbiotics, but my 15 year old cat isn't going to make it. He's been losing a lot of weight lately, still eating, drinking, but not grooming himself anymore. My vet and I will make him comfortable if the time comes, but I'm hoping nature will let him go peacefully.
I hope you've had better luck with yours. Please let me know!
Lorie

Thank you all for the feedback. Oddly enough, the vet said other than being an old man, he is in good health. The accidents seemed to stop for the most part, but he will still leave us a "present" maybe once every week or two. The strong urine smell seemed to have passed.