Sunday, February 24, 2008

pussy whipped?

The cat is one spoilt pussy!

So last month, despite the pee-at-the-front-door behaviour, or perhaps because of it, Kosh and I got her two "toys:

1. those "doggy steps" you might have seen on TV: she's got a perch she needs to jump to get to, and of course jump down onto hardwood floors, so we figured with her increasing old age her joints could do with NOT hitting the floor all the time. Of course, the cast sniffs at the contraption leading to her perch, and refuses to have anything to do with it. If nothing else, we've improved her launching skills because she now seems to make a more powerful jump to her perch to avoid the steps.

2. a cat play lounger thingamajig, which is essentially a half-circle high enough for the cat to play under, and wide enough for her to lounge on, covered with three different textures so she can sharpen her non-existent claws, sleep, etc etc - an alternative, lower perch for her, you might say. Well, putting it together was simple and yet difficult because it was *such* a cheap plastic product it didn't even stand level! We've had to wedge it in between other things to keep it in one place. Oh and of course the cat doesn't "get" it at all, and so now it's draped with her toys in the hopes of enticing her to at least play within its vicinity.

*sigh*

Now, based on her last few vet check-ups, she's doing fine, perhaps slightly dehydrated and a bit overweight. To counter the dehydration, we just need to get her to drink more, but of course ideally she prefers drinking running water from a faucet, not stagnant water from a bowl. And for the weight, we need to portion her food instead of just filling her bowl full every three days.

And so...

1. Cat water fountain: with a "free-falling stream that is closest to a faucet" feature, dropped a few tens on this accessory. Pretty simple set-up, and the sound of falling water is rather pleasant too. The cat took to it within an hour of it running. I've twice found junk in its bowl, perhaps she drank immediately after eating and still had food crumbs on her face/whiskers, or she pawed at the water with dirty paws, who knows, but disassembling it for cleaning is a bit of a bother, but still easy enough to do. Overall, a good investment.

2. Automatic pet feeder: I'd figured out the cat's daily consumption of food, then tried to consistently feed her a touch below that amount at a consistent time during the day. Wasn't happening. And most vets recommend twice-daily feeding. Waaay too much hassle! So it was either say screw it and let the cat be fat, or look to an automatic cat feeder. So we got ourselves the latter. The cat seems to not be freaked out by the rotating food dish, and has helped herself to the food without any problems.

But. Some days she seems to finish the food fast, some days not. One factor could be her getting locked up while we're out, so sometimes she'd locked up for 6 hours, perhaps that affects her appetite? But certainly another factor is the consistency of food portioned out to her. I kinda eyeball the kibble doled out in a smaller bowl, but it's not really a good system. And the portion is small enough that I'd need to do some hunting for a scoop or whatever that might be of the correct volume.

So instead.

Okay so ostensibly we've been looking for a kitchen food scale for a while now, for our own portion control efforts. But the first thing it's going to be used for: doling out the cat's food, LoL!

So yeah... in the span of one month, we've amassed waaay too much *stuff* *just* for the cat.

Sometimes I feel that all too soon we'll be in the situation of this cartoon which I took a photo of so it's dreadfully unclear, but it shows the dog in bed with its owners at the foot of the bed.
"IT'S COME TO THIS"


LoL!

2 comments:

  1. LOL! Your cats sounds just like ours!

    I've actually been thinking about buying one of those water fountains for our two. I just like the idea because as you say, the water doesn't turn stagnant as quickly.

    We tried to put our oldest cat on a diet because she was quite tubby, and it worked till we brought the kitten home. Now they share each other food dishes *rolls eyes* So, the diet went out the window, but hey, they're racing around after each other, so maybe the exercise will help!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How about this?
    http://www.smarthome.com/6182ak.html

    It's a "Remote Pet Feeding Kit"

    You can also monitor your pet when away from home... and be your cats' "Big Brother" ;-)

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear from you, drop me a comment.

about two months later...

 ... hi again. This return to blogging is really not working out, is it? Actually, I am writing, three pages of mind vomit and affirmations ...