Fat Cat Wants to Win Biggest Loser.

This is Wine and Dogs. Though I actually want to start with a post about my fat cat Tiger. Tiger is a 14 year old tabby with a fairly hefty weight problem. He wasn't always fat, but I suppose he was always gaining weight. He used to be a very athletic kitty that could spring from the ground to the top of the 6 foot fence with ease and grace. Now, he has to use his claws to grapple his way onto the sofa. His weight issue is my fault. I had always thought cats needed to have food available to them all day. He was a "free choice" kitty and his choice was to over indulge. Now at 14, he has arthritis and asthma. I am not sure how long to expect his life to last, but I guess I must be an optimist because I am hoping that we can get him down to his target weight (12-13 lbs) and he will still have time to enjoy it. If I thought he was near the end, I suppose I would just let him eat and enjoy his food.

At the vet 3 weeks ago, Tiger weighed in at 15 lbs, 8 oz. This is his highest weight to date. This comes after I had attempted to cut back his food. So we were feeling very discouraged. I had decided to follow the feeding plan on the cat food bag for a 14 lb cat. This required a 1/3 cup serving twice a day. This is apparently all it takes to make a cat obese because he never finished his daily rations and he gained weight. The vet at that time said that the cat food bag is trying to sell more cat food and can't be trusted. Who knew. So he set Tiger on a diet of 1/4 cup twice a day. The difference between 1/3 cup and 1/4 cup is very very irritating for people and cats alike.

I feed him when I get up in the morning and then later in the evening as well. The first week, he would eat his evening food right away and then around 2 am when he was hungry again, he would scratch on our bedroom door. And scratch and scratch and scratch. Letting him in was not an option as he would then parade around the bed climbing all over the people and scratching the faces of those brave enough to try to sleep with their faces uncovered. The next step was to put up a barrier between the door and the cat. For this I used a folded piece of cardboard. My thought was if he started to scratch it, it would fall on him and scare him from the door. His next move was to begin the 2am wailing. So I began the 2am squirt bottle attack. After about 3 nights in a row of squirting the cat with water when he scratched and cried, he settled down. So far so good. I don't want to jinx it, but he now reserves the torment for waking hours. And he does still torment.

His daytime whining involves following me around the house meowing, starting around 5pm. If I happen to be sitting, he breaks out the claws and digs them into my pants. If he manages to heft himself up onto the sofa, he walks all over everyone, meowing and clawing faces. After three weeks of this, I was really looking forward to our next vet weigh-in. For one, if he had not lost weight but had gained, that would mean he has a medical condition that we need to look into that food rationing wasn't going to fix. If he had lost weight, than I would feel encouraged to keep it up in spite of his complaints.

So this week at the vet Tiger weighed in at 15 lbs, 4 oz.! Success! Of sorts. It is weight loss. Not as much as I had hoped. I had thought I was seeing some hind leg definition. Probably wishful thinking. The vet was surprised to hear that the cat is still carrying on during the day. He would have expected him to be used to the schedule and portions by now. I look forward to that day. But he is waiting later and later at night now to begin the barrage. The weather is turning warmer now and the cat goes outside with me and the dogs now. He makes his rounds around the yard, rubbing his cheeks on things, eating grass. I like to see him doing something besides sleeping and it makes me feel good to think of him getting trimmer. Some day he may jump up on something again. I will report back with his next weigh in.