Start by watching how she eats now
Before changing anything for an elderly Domestic Shorthair, watch one normal meal closely. Does she crouch low and shift her front paws as she eats, pull food out of the bowl to eat it from the floor, or leave the last layer untouched in the bottom of a deep dish? Each behaviour points at a fix: crouching and shifting suggest the bowl is too low for her neck and shoulders, food pulled out suggests the dish is too deep or narrow for comfort, and an untouched bottom layer suggests she cannot comfortably reach or clear it. Domestic Shorthairs have no single breed build — yours might be a compact six pounds or a long, heavy cat — so her own behaviour at the bowl is a better guide than any general height rule.
Raising the station without making it wobbly
Lift an elderly Domestic Shorthair's dishes on something genuinely stable: a purpose-made stand, a low wooden step, or a sturdy box she cannot tip, with a non-slip surface so the bowls stay put when she leans her weight in. Aim for her to eat standing squarely with her head dropping only slightly, the way she would graze rather than excavate. Avoid stacking books or anything that rocks — a station that moves teaches an old cat the feeding place is unsafe, and she may start eating hastily or avoiding it. Once you find the height she eats at calmly and completely, fix it there permanently rather than adjusting it meal by meal.
Water placed where an old cat actually goes
An elderly Domestic Shorthair drinks what she passes, so one water bowl beside the food is rarely enough in her senior years. Add a second bowl near her favourite sleeping spot and a third in any room she occupies for hours, each on a mat to protect the floor and mark the place. Keep the bowls wide so her whiskers clear the rim, and top them to the same line each morning so a falling or rising drinking level is visible to whoever fills them. Many older cats prefer water set a little apart from food rather than directly beside it; if her food-side bowl is consistently ignored while she drinks from a glass or a tap, move a proper bowl to where she has been telling you she wants it.
Consistency matters more than the equipment
The best-adapted station fails if it migrates. An elderly Domestic Shorthair — especially one whose eyesight is not what it was — finds her bowls by remembered routes, and a station moved even a metre for mopping and left there can mean a missed meal or a cat crying in the wrong corner. Keep stations out of the household's traffic reshuffles: not on the counter that gets cleared, not in the hallway corner that becomes a storage spot in winter. If the litter tray, bowls, and bed keep their geography, an old cat can run her whole day confidently on habit, which is exactly the independence senior adaptations are meant to protect.
Tell everyone where everything belongs
Adaptations only survive if the whole household knows them, including the neighbour who feeds her when you travel. Leave a simple note of the layout — stand height, which rooms hold water, the fill line — where feeders will see it, and update it when you change anything. Recording that station layout on her profile through KinsLe's Family Sharing puts the same details in front of every family member and helper, so an elderly Domestic Shorthair's bowls stay raised, placed, and filled the way her comfort requires.