Dan's Papers - May 8, 2009 - The Meow, Meow, Meow of Picky Eaters

It was time to take our female Maine Coon cat, Roxie Hart, to the vet for her annual check up. She's turning 10 in July and is very healthy. I wasn't concerned about anything really - except maybe her weight. Roxie isn't fat, at least not like her "brother" Robbie (our male Maine Coon), but she had been putting on a pound a year for the last two years and was supposed to be on a diet. We'd tried, cutting back on her wet food, limiting the dry food (neither of our cats is allowed to "free feed"). I was aware that we probably still fed them too much but the dry food was all healthy and natural, so we focused on limiting the wet food - Fancy Feast, which our vet called "Fritos for cats." That was really intended more as a treat. However, they LOVE their Fancy Feast and it had gotten a bit out of hand.

The day of the vet appointment arrived and I had to make the decision on how to transport Roxie. She hates to be in the carrying case at all and always ends up foaming at the mouth and crying. Even for the short ride from Noyac to Sag Harbor Village she's just a mess. She isn't as calm a cat as Robbie, who sits in my arms while I sing to him (music hath charms, yada yada ...) so it's problematic. I could wrap her in a towel, an act she finds terribly degrading, or perhaps put her in her old harness and see if she'd hold still with that on. The harness seemed the way to go.

During the first five years of Roxie's life I used to take her outside in a harness, she'd lead me around the lawn while she ate grass and rolled around in the dirt. One day a car backfired and scared her and she got all tangled up. Needless to say, the trips outside in the harness ended. However, as I pulled the five-year old harness out of the cat toy drawer she jumped up on the table and eagerly put her head into the collar part. I tried to put the rest of the harness on but it didn't fit anymore... oh, no. This did not bode well for the weigh-in at the vet.

As we drove to Sag Harbor, Roxie squirming around in my arms while I tried to sing to her, I thought about how much bigger she really seemed. Like any weight gain I've experienced, this was gradual. She was "trim and fit" one year, then a year later she was still "in great shape," then last year, suddenly, she was "too fat." Isn't it always that way? Weight and age creep up on you, even if you're a cat. It's just not fair.

Of course, as we looked at the scale once inside the vet's office, she was up one more pound. Looking at us like we were over indulgent parents, the vet's assistant asked what we fed her. We confessed to the wet/dry diet and a few table scraps from time to time. Enter the vet, Dr. Barry Browning, a wonderful animal doctor in whom we have complete trust when it comes to our beloved pets. "They need more protein and less carbs," he declared. Where had I heard that before, I thought, sucking in my gut? A very informative lecture on cats and their optimum eating habits ensued. As we left the office we were resigned to switching over to a more protein-focused diet. Now, we just needed to convince the cats this is the way to go.

Next time: Living with Cats on a Diet, or, Tips on How to Ignore the Plaintive Meows.