Advice from the Cat

There is a new cat at our house, kind of by default.  We didn't go looking for her, but she insisted she was ours.  One night, a while back, we heard loud meowing on the patio outside our bedroom.  We looked out and saw an orange cat, just standing there and meowing in the general direction of the house.  Well, we live way out in the country.  Cats come along and then they head home.  So other than the fact that she meowed outside on the patio all night, we didn't think much more about it.

The next night while I was fixing dinner I heard meowing again.  I opened the kitchen door and there she stood on the back step.  She meowed at me like, "Let me in.  I live here."  I told her to go on home.

The following day my son confessed that he had slipped her a piece of bread because "she looked hungry," and she had devoured the bread in a matter of seconds.  So the next time I saw her, I gave her a little cat food.  Soon we were keeping a bowl in the garage for her.  And a heated pet bed.

You know where this story is going, don't you?  After calling all the neighbors and finding no one who claimed her, and after taking her to the vet for a clean and very expensive bill of health, Annie has now moved in to the house.

She's a really sweet cat.  She just has a bit of an issue with food.  I guess those days of going hungry made her think the best modus operandi was to eat every bite of food she ever passed (kind of how I used to be).  When she was still outside and I put food in her bowl, she would eat all of it, no matter how much I gave her.

But when she moved in we had a new problem.  We have always used a self-feeder for our other cat.  We just fill it up every week and she nibbles on it as needed.  She has always remained very svelte and eats just what she needs.  When Annie first came in the house, she could not walk by that bowl without stopping for a little nosh.  What really cracked us up was that she would lie down while she ate.  Like it was just too much work to stand up and chew at the same time. 

She finally seems to be getting the hang of the self-feeder.  But in the meantime, here's what has happened:

I think we need a kitty cat treadmill.

So while you're trying to navigate yourself through all the parties and family get-togethers in the next few weeks, keep Annie in mind and remember:

• It's not your last meal.
• Grazing is probably not a good idea.
• Whatever you do, don't lie down while you eat.