Discussion with New Kitty Over Food – Pointless?

Our new kitty, who will be two years old in June, has been with us now since January 15 - just over two months. Everyone who understands feline-psychology knows full well that we do not train cats – cats train us.

That said, our little girl was very pudgy when we picked her up. When you look down on her, she’s nearing the stage of looking like a basketball with legs. Well, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but she is plumper than is healthy for her.

It is difficult to get her weight down. When we brought her home, we quickly found out that she hadn’t really picked us out the way we first thought she had. We now think she thought we were just new “attendants” and had come into the room with food and that’s why she was talking to us and pawing at us, not because she fell in love at first sight. She is obsessed with food. But she will only eat certain foods. That is normal cat behavior as most cat caregivers know. I chose that word – cat caregiver – carefully, because they allow us to take care of them; we do not own them.

Ok – most cat caregivers have a two week supply of canned foods which consist of 14 different flavors because cats won’t eat the same thing two days in a row.

Our little miss is a step up for us, I have to admit. She only eats one flavor of one brand of canned food – Friskies Poultry Platter Pate. It’s the dry food that is giving me nightmares. She wouldn’t eat the stuff they used to feed her – they gave me some when we brought her home. To get her to eat something, anything, the first few days, I tempted her with Temptations. They are crunchy treats with a soft inside and her highness prefers only one flavor of those, too – Seafood Medley.

Here is where the problem appears – since that first few days, she has decided that Temptations are not treats – they are meals. I fear she will get fatter and fatter unless I break her of this obsession.

I had a long talk with her last week. I checked a cat age calculator online and discovered that she is almost 25 now. So I had this talk. I explained that, much as I’d love to, I cannot eat Cheetos for breakfast, lunch and dinner, or I’d be too fat to bend down and brush her. I explained that my nephew, much as he would love it, cannot eat cannolis for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for the same reason. So, I further explained, she cannot eat Temptations morning, noon and night.

It seems to have gone over her head. I’m going to try a new approach tomorrow. We suspect her first caregivers, before they dumped her at the shelter, did not give her much attention and love. I’m going to try to substitute love for food, during the times she should not be so obsessed with food. When she rubs my legs every time I enter the kitchen, if it is not a mealtime, I will just bend down, stroke her head or sides, and say something loving to her.

I know, I know – lots of you are out there reading this and laughing out loud at this plan.

But, to keep her to a size where I can still pick her up, I must at least give it a try. Here goes nothing…