I just live for my little ah-ha experiences, but for sure this one is the first that involved a cat…my friend Kobe’s cat. He’s a nice cat, as cats go, and we all know how I do kind of like cats…especially friendly cats, and since Kobe’s cat is Home Alone during Kobe’s work week, there is some pent-up need for affection, or at least attention or whatever it is that cats are after when they signal they have noticed your presence by rubbing up against your leg.
So of course I reach down to pet him, which he facilitates by flopping down on his back to better present his eminently pettable belly.
Some months ago in the course of giving this cat his belly-rub, it came to my attention that he was fat. I called this medical problem to the attention of the house dietitian, wondering aloud whether he was in the process of killing the cat with kindness.
On subsequent visits, I observed that the cat did not seem to have lost girth and was, if anything, getting fatter. So I renewed my acid observations regarding its morbid obesity. The phrase “cat murderer” may have passed my lips…and fallen on deaf ears, as the cat grew fatter and fatter.
On a recent visit I noticed that, in addition to the premium canned cat food stacked in huge piles and clearly fed to the cat morning and evening, there was a bowl of dry cat food sitting there against the possibility that a single hunger pang might strike the cat at any moment during its waking hours. I was aghast. No wonder the cat is so fat!
But then as I was railing about his encouraging the cat to eat itself to death it struck me that from the cat’s standpoint this might be a damn fine way to go. Yes, there is more and more evidence that animals fed a nutritious diet but kept on the brink of starvation live longer, but it occurs to me that the animals might prefer a shorter life with plenty to eat.
And then I thought about my own situation. Ummmm yes. Back when there were certain advantages in sporting a six-pack, there was good reason to watch my diet.
But now that I don’t care how I look, I am getting…well, not as fat as Kobe’s cat, but I’ve made a start.