The cat lives in our home despite her mercurial nature. She's ten years old, so I guess we're stuck with her for a while yet. She serves no real purpose except to get cat hair on the sofa and to annoy me.
About 80% of the time, she's a tolerable animal. It's the other 20% that gets to you. Without warning, she will pounce on you. Sometimes, when provoked, she will bite. Most of my kids' friends just hate her, fear her or have a general disregard for her.
We got her as a kitten for our then-6 year old daughter. They were inspeparable for seven or eight years, but now the Disappearing Teenager has basically abandoned her cat and so by default she comes around to bug us all the time.
She's fat because we can't keep her out of the dog food. She earns her keep as the dog's best friend and constant companion. So, she does serve a purpose in the house.
She has no front claws, so she can't go outside unsupervised. We love her in spite of her personality flaws, maybe because of them.
If you don't mind, we'll keep feeding her.
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4 comments:
And shes a constant source of entertainment!
Well...sorry if I started a backlash about your tubby-tabby! Originally just noticed the feline in the pic was a little bit more full-figured than most.
Since this started on a thread about your health, I'll segue into one about animal health (Hey..PM Magazine taught me to segue with just about anything!!). My wife and I never had kids but we did have dogs!! (Now what's that have to do with cats?...read on:) And like surrogate kids, they got our full attention. Alas, as they got older the inevitability of age revealed some things that weren't apparent regarding their diets which contributed to one animal's discomfort so that he had to be put down at almost 16 years.
Pancreatitis can occur when too much fat gets in the system, causing the pancreas to "go tilt" and shut down... it's as if the body is poisoning itself and let's just say it's not pretty and quite preventible.
It takes years for it to occur, but little by little...with each passing day it builds up to when symptoms occur; it's probably too late. So, by all means...keep the kitty happy and well fed, but dog food for cats (and vice versa) probably isn't recommended. And Ix-Nay on sharing people food too...while you may think what's a little bite going to hurt, it can and does add up over the lifetime of your pet. And I'm sure that you and the family want what's best for Miss Kitty.
The problem, as I see it, is that you 'free feed'. Most cats are usually fed this way where you leave their food down and they nibble on it all day. Dogs generally do better when you feed them, give them 20 mins or so, then pick up their food. That way, the cat can't eat the dog's food because it's been picked up. Keep the cat's food up higher where the dog can't reach it and you won't have to worry about the dog eating the cat's food.
I have seen fatter cats and like Chuckles said, it won't really be a big problem til the cat gets older. Not only will the extra weight be a strain on her heart but kidney and bladder stones are very common in older cats. I know you can relate to that, lol!
For some reason as I look at this photo I can't help but think of the painting "girl with a pearl earring". Don't ask me why, it just popped in there.
Maybe you should give the cat an earring...
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