Once we got back to the Sunshine coast, we arranged to pick up the cats from their luxury holiday home. With private indoor and outdoor areas and climate controlled living quarters, who could ask for more, as far as a cat goes. Not having seen the cats for nearly two weeks, when we picked them up we resigned ourselves to how fat Pirie had gotten over the time we had been at Mapleton. It was time to take action and so Pirie has been forced to go on a weight reduction regime. I had tried in the past to restrict her intake of bickies but when she hovers around your legs all day in a caravan, meowing and looking pitiful, it becomes frustrating and so I would just give in and give her something so she would go away and stop annoying me. Her lack of exercise due to her tethering has also played a part. She has gone from gypsy cat wandering around at her leisure to a restricted area the size of our site. As a result, we have one fat cat.
Steve and I trawled the pet shops for an appropriate biscuit replacement. If you think the meal replacement choices available for people are varied, you should see what's available for cats and dogs.
Everything was veterinarian recommended or clinically proven. There was Advance, Eukanuba, Purina, Royal Canin, Hills and many more. We eventually decided, after standing for what seemed like ages in the isle, on Hills Science Diet mainly because our cattery lady uses it and she is a vet nurse when she's not running the 'cat hilton'. From there we had another whole new range of choices to make. There was optimal care, hairball control, indoor cat, light, oral care, sensitive skin and sensitive stomach. Then for each of these choices there was varieties for kittens, adults and mature adults. But wait there's more. We had choices from 500g to 6 kgs. OMG!!! Of course while we were making this hopefully life changing choice for Pirie, Becca was squealing every two seconds because dogs were allowed in the store and she was bumping into them on a regular basis as she ran up and down the isles. They were thankfully under effective control on leads, unlike our little animal.
We came home with our pack of Science Diet Adult Light biscuits and immediately read the instructions on the side of the pack......unusual I know but necessary under the circumstances. The guy in the pet store said don't do the same thing with these biscuits as you have done with the regular variety or the cat will explode - his words not mine. Of course we weren't exactly sure of Pirie's weight but she was 5 kgs at her vet visit last year and now we can barely lift her so decided that the maximum of 7kgs on the pack was where to start. I got my scales out and we weighed the exact amount she was allowed daily (for weight reduction) and put it into a specific container.
Our next dilemna was how to stop Pirie sneaking a snack out of Karki's bowl. Karki has the self control to eat what she needs and walk away leaving biscuits in her bowl. Pirie does not have that self control. If it's there, she will eat it. Hardly surprising then that Karki is not fat. I ended up cutting the lid from an empty punnet of strawberries and placing it over Karki's bowl. Now Karki just looks at her bowl when I have forgotten to take the lid off and then looks at me. Eventually we will all get used to the new regime. In the meantime, let's hope that with some persistence and patience from we humans, we may be able to get Pirie down to a size where she doesn't look at the steps into the van with dread or look longingly at Erin's top bunk (which is nice and warm when the heater's running) before being lifted up because she struggles to jump.
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