Fat Cat - how did this happen?!?!?

So on Friday my partner Rob took our 2 cats to the vet. Reggie and Alex were kill shelter rescues that we adopted back in 2005. Alex is older and she is NEEDY, where as Reggie was a kitten when we got her and she has always been very skiddish. And as much as we find them sometimes annoying and bitchy, we love them both dearly and would do pretty much anything for them.

Which leads us back to last Friday - We have always known that Alex was large, OK she's fat, but we never really though it was that big of a deal. I mean Reggie was the one that has to be fed special food that requires a prescription. When we got the food for Reggie we decided that we would just feed it to both the cats because the last thing we wanted to do was become THAT cat owner that has to separate the cats in different rooms and feed them different things. Cats are supposed to be easy and the idea of some sort of tedious feeding regimen was a bit too much for us.

So imagine our surprise when the vet told us that not only was Alex fat, but that she was on the verge of getting Diabetes - and if we didn't start getting her down in poundage, we would be giving her shots daily and these would cause her to NEVER loose the weight. So not only had I let myself go - I had passed the bad eating habits along to my child. It was quite an awakening situation.


The solution - the Egg-cercizer! Seriously! The vet recommended this device that forces the cat to hunt and forage for their food, which not only gives her a limited amount of kibble but is making her exercise. So we went to 3 pet stores and received looks ranging from curiosity to lunacy. We finally went to The Pet Set and wallah - there it was. So the idea is that you put the kibble or treats inside and dial the level of difficulty from easy (3 open holes) to hard (1 open hole).

So we get home and Alex is already pissed at us. Her normal bowl of food that we leave out all day for her grazing pleasure was gone. It was now replaced with a turquoise plastic egg with precisely 2 oz. of food - exactly what the vet had told us. Well she was not happy - giving us the look as to say "Excuse me - what the hell is this? You have GOT to be kidding!" So all day we tried to get her to understand exactly what she was supposed to do - bat it around and it would release her treasure. Nope, she was not having it. Meanwhile we had to figure out how to feed the skinny one, Reggie, without William "The Refrigerator" Perry swooping in and scarfing it all down.

So here we were - the people that we didn't want to become. One cat the WILL NOT play to get her food, and one cat running away from us as we are trying to catch her so that we could put her in the downstairs bathroom shower stall in order for her to get nutrition. Where had we gone wrong. So as we are sitting there watching TV - Reggie approaches the "egg" and starts to knock it around and nibbles on the delights inside. Really, REALLY!!! She can do it but the other one could care less. Then the idea that just seemed stupid - letting Alex (the one with the issue) eat her 1/4 cup from her normal bowl and how to keep her from eating her sister's food? Well we will just put Reggie's in the contraption that we already know Alex thinks is beneath her! Problem solved. And I Just can't wait to see how this whole thing plays out...

To be continued...