Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Posted by Animals at 5:07 PM Friday, January 22, 2010

Scratchings-and-Sniffings

The Kitty Cat Factor

Posted: 21 Jan 2010 10:50 AM PST

Yvonne While I was in the sessions on cats, at the NAVC, I kept thinking back to my days at The Cat Doctor, in Rochester, NY. We saw all manner of cats, of course. We saw big ones and little ones, loud ones and quiet ones, scary ones and calm ones. I remember a lot of them for the medical conditions - especially diabetes and being overweight.

Interestingly, we had a big cat at our office called Buttons. Buttons was a rescue who lived at our office. We let him out during lunch. He was an orange tabby and weighted a whopping 18 pounds! Obviously, in keeping with yesterday's post from Dr. Larry, this was mainly from lack of exercise. Buttons did not get enough of that, for sure. (did I mention I finally met Dr. Larry in person...and we had dinner twice? He's as amusing and smart and witty in person as he is on the blog! We are lucky to have him!)

My kitty, the wonderful Wabby, has had her fat-cat days. Again, she's not much of a playful kitty and as I sat and listened to the different sessions, I worried that I was not a good pet Mom - I didn't play with her all that much. Oh, the stories I could tell of the Wabby giving me her best, "Excuse me, why are you dragging that thing across my paws? I am not getting up to chase it." And, of the day a mouse...yep, a mouse...appeared in our room, eating out of her bowl, whereupon she turned her face to me with a stare that seemed to say, "Are you going to let him get away with that?" And, no, she never jumped down to pursue the mouse! Truth is, Carmel caught the mouse.Wabby-and-Carmie

Anyway, the kitty cat factor I am talking about in my title is precisely related to the nutrition and dietary needs of our cats. We discuss this in our podcasts with Dr. Grace (who Tom and I got to meet in person...OMG! who knew? ). Nutrition seems to be on everyone's mind these days. I think a lot of good pet parents think making cat food and dog food at home is the only way to go. I definitely hope they are consulting their vet to make sure their pet is getting the proper nutrition from homemade diets, but I also think vets should give nutrition classes.

Seriously, why not? Nutrition is something we can all learn and benefit from knowing. That way, we can better choose our pet food, either from the grocery store shelf (that's my choice, I admit it), or from our kitchen cupboard. It's learning and studying and understanding nutritional needs - and how much that plays into our dog's and cat's overall health. Not just their weight.

I'll talk more about the myth of 9 lives and how it applies to a cat's overall health. Seems that our cats are more complicated than we knew! As America's favorite pet, it's our job to make sure our cats are healthy and happy - and nutrition is a BIG factor in that result. More on that going forward.

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