All the best for your furry friend.
One batch of the 4A's batteries have become a fire hazard. That's why Google (near)bricked the phones to prevent that.
These delayed notifications sound like some background processes get killed. I hazard to guess that's why you get all at once once you wake up the phone. So look for items like background and battery optimization in the settings and see if you can re-enable some of these.
It's been a minute with the 4A. I think it's great that you keep extending the life of the phone and thus reduce e-waste. But I think it might be time to look for another phone.
Then you haven't been to China. It's a shorthand gesture there. The character for ten is 十 so I'm not sure if the gesture informed the character or the other way around. What is noteworthy is just that both cultures ended up with a cross to denote ten.