Tunch has finally adjusted (and by adjusted, I mean that he has not attacked my feet in two weeks and is eating his food and has stopped skulking around the house bitching at me 20 hours a day) to the switch from Science Diet Lite to Felidae, and I have to say that I really like the results so far:
1.) He appears to have already lost a little weight, and the switch took place just a little bit ago.
2.) His bowel movements are smaller. Why is this important, those who do not own cats might ask? Because he shits in a box in my house.
3.) His fur seems healthier. I brush him every morning (and when it is really hot, I brush him at night, too), and his hair seems smoother and silkier and just, in general, healthier.
4.) He seems less sluggish and more active, and I have noticed his nose is moister and pinker, FWIW.
In general, he seems friskier, more active, happier, and healthier, and these are observations after just a few weeks.
Rome Again
OT, but John, are you noticing a difference in the way the page appears? There is a lot of blank space between the title and the post on all pages this morning.
Sorry, I’m not going to comment on your cat poo-poo… but I”m glad he seems better.
John Cole
Everything seems normal to me.
CaseyL
That’s great. I tried to find Felidae at my local PetSmart, but they don’t seem to carry it – is it something one buys at the higherend/organic pet supply stores?
Also, you probably better lay in some self-propelling kitty toys, because if Tunch is that much happier, friskier, and more playful after just a week or two, he’s likely to be a manic ball of kitten-like energy in another month :)
RSA
All that sounds great, so much so that I wonder if I could benefit from
FelidaeHominidae (I don’t need more fur or a pinker nose).IanY77
I’ve never seen pics on this blog, but is there any way to post a pic of the little guy?
Jake
Great news (mews?) Congrats on being a good cat owner and winning a test of wills with a feline.
Tax Analyst
That’s good news, John…your #2 comment about bowel-movement size gave me a good LOL here at my work cube….it’s been a while since I had a cat, but I do remember the cat box and all it’s ramifications. Hell, I even wrote a parody about it some time back. I’ve never tried to attach a link before, maybe I’ll try it here.
Tax Analyst
Nope, I don’t know how to attach a link…OK, I’ll just copy & paste it…that way I don’t disclose my real & true & actual identity anyway:
BTW, the parody song structure is based on Gordon Lightfoot’s “Bitter Green” from his “Back Here on Earth” album from the 60’s and the parody title is, of course, “Litter Green”. I’m not sure why there is a line break creating singular lines, because those should be part of the prior verse in each case.
“Litter Green”
[acoustic guitar intro]
Upon the Litter Green she hopped;
her cat box for a dump.
Landing with her footpads
right on a dried-up clump.
Glaring ’cause the bastard
did not her cat box clean
Staring at him mean.
Litter Green, they called it,
full of reeking turd,
pissed off at the nerd, he forgot.
Litter Green, they called it,
stinking in the sun,
waiting for the bum to change her box.
She thought he was an idiot,
he rationed out her food.
Perhaps he was a moron,
he was one stupid dude.
Never cleaned the cat box,
which was where she must piss,
she felt rather dissed.
Litter Green, they called it,
reeking in the sun,
it was not much fun to squat in it.
Litter Green, they called it,
stinking in the sun,
waiting for that scum to clean her box.
(Instrumental Interlude)
But now the Litter Green’s all gone,
the bag is empty now.
Where is that thoughtless bastard,
I’m gonna have a cow.
Aiming for the cat box,
she let loose with her piss,
purposely, she missed.
Litter Green, they called it,
full of reeking turds,
wished she could speak words to the bum.
Really mean, she called it,
failed to clean her tray,
someday he would pay,
she had been dissed.
Quite obscene, she called it,
made her squat in turds,
that was for the birds for your pet.
Quite unclean, dried-up shit,
overflowed the tray,
she would make him pay,
when next she pissed.
Dave
Good to hear about Tunch. Based on his results, I’m gonna make the switch myself.
Mike S
About two months ago we almost lost our 16 year old cat to kidney disease and kidney infections. After 6k in vet bills he’s almost completely recovered.
But here’s a tip. Don’t bother with pet insurance. So far they’ve covered only about 12% of our cost. That’s after paying over 2k in premiums.
Shinobi
Good call on the switching. I keep telling my parents to switch for their older cat but no one listens to me, I’m just the kid.
I’ve been feeding my cats Nutro “Natural choice” and people always comment on how soft they are and how shiny their fur is. (I find that it also reduces how allergic I am to them.) I don’t think it is quite as nice as Felidae but it is available at petsmart, and I think a tad cheaper.
Shabbazz
One of the best Onion headlines ever:
“Like having boxes of shit in your house? Get a cat!”
It rates right up there with:
“Trophy wife mounted”
Roonieroo
That is awesome John! Good to hear it went well. It is worth the suffering the fuzzy ones put you through during the switch.
ThymeZone
I resisted a comment here … for a while, but it’s just too good to pass up.
I’ve been yelled at, told to go f–k himself, and banned here, all by a guy who posts an article about his cat’s bowel movements.
It just doesn’t often get a lot sweeter than this.
tBone
Yes, clearly you’ve never seen pics on this blog. :)
John may be waiting for the Felidae to work its slimming magic before he posts a current picture. Or maybe he simply doesn’t have a wide-angle lens.
tBone
Eukanuba is good too. Worked wonders on our long-haired cat after a disastrous stint with a Science Diet hairball control formula (otherwise known as “How to Turn Your Cat’s Coat Into a Knotted, Impenetrable Mass of Mats in 30 Days or Less”).
Tax Analyst
I think I musta tried that one once on Loki. I ended up paying a pet groomer more money than I could afford to untangled that poor cat’s coat…and that was only after I ‘guilted’ said groomer into doing it.
Andrew
Of course, the best Onion headline of all time is: “Man Prone to Lying Beds Woman Prone to Lying Prone.”
Oh, and Dave:
You must be a very talented cat to be using the Internets.
greynoldsct00
How about a photo of Tunch so we can be properly introduced…I checked under the archives to see if I missed it in the past but didn’t see one.
Cyrus
Tunch is in two or three pictures near the bottom of this. Sorry for not linking directly, but it seemed the easiest way to get two or three in one link.
Mary
More Tunch here, ca. September 2005. (My cat Pooka, in the tongue-sticking-out photo from Cyrus’ link, is no longer with us. Poor tyke.)
IanY77
Thanks guys!
oh and TBone: Hah! I have a 22 pounder sitting in my lap as I type this. There aren’t enough megapixels in my camera to capture her in all her flabby glory.
Bombadil
Line of the day!
DonkeyKong
“He seems less sluggish and more active, and I have noticed his nose is moister and pinker.”
McCain needs to go on this diet, his nose looks greyish and veiny.
jake
Tunch looks exactly like I thought he would. Maybe John posted a photo recently? Anyway, he’s a great looking cat. Long may he reign over every aspect of your life!
ConservativelyLiberal
I was going to suggest that if your cat would not eat the new food you are serving, get him stoned. No joke. I used to have a male Maine Coon (that was a beautiful orange/cream color) that loved to get baked. And no, I did not force it on him. I didn’t have to.
We would all be sitting around on the couch (plush L shaped one), passing the bong around. From the time he was a kitten, Kitty Buds (nice name, eh?) would walk around on the back of the couch and put his paws on our shoulders. To drive him off, we would blow a puff of smoke at him and he would go away.
That lasted about a week. Then he started coming right back, so we kept at it. Within a month, he would sit with his rump on the back of the couch, resting his front/paws on your shoulder. If you blew the smoke at him, he would just sit there and take it in. Sometimes he would sneeze, and you would get sprayed in the process. You got pretty good at putting a hand up between your face and his when he would start twitching his nose/whiskers.
Turns out that this was not a very good idea. One day I came home and I knew something was wrong right away. My stash (in the usual baggie) had been invaded. I saw the empty baggie on the rug on the living room floor, and on closer inspection almost all of the stash was gone. Out of a quarter oz I had about three joints left. And in the kitchen, Kitty Buds was sacked out in front of his empty (was full when I left) bowl. He looked up and gave me this lethargic ‘Mrrrraoooowwww’ and flicked his tail (which he was very interested in looking at) over and over. When I did not fill the bowl right away, he got up and started to come over to me to complain, and his ass kept falling down. I took pity on him and took him back to the bowl, added a bit of food and topped off his water.
He ate and then I picked him up and put him on his favorite resting spot (next to the fridge, go figure) on his blanket. He was up and about late that evening, but he was pretty much wasted for at least two days. I did a much better job of stashing my stuff from then on.
But (there is always one of those) Kitty Buds was not to be deterred. One evening I left some stash in the bottom of a pocket in my goose down vest. The baggie fit exactly along the bottom of edge of the pocket, which was along the bottom of the vest.
The next morning I came into the kitchen to get the stash out of the vest, and the baggie was thoroughly perforated with endless tiny holes. They looked remarkably like the fangs of a particular cat I knew well. I looked at the bottom of the vest, and the nylon was in the same condition. The only thing that saved the stash was he could not rip the nylon apart. Sneaky cat…
We shared our lives together for almost 15 years until he passed away one afternoon. It was a sad day that I will never forget. I have had other cats since, but he was the coolest cat I ever had. He was more like a dog than a cat, as I could go for a walk in the hood and he would just meander along with me. Probably waiting for me to drop a baggie… :)
But he sure liked to chow down after a good bake! Something to keep in mind for those who have a finicky cat! ;)
Tim in SF
Nice story, CL.
John, try having your cat clipped at the groomers. I had my cat clipped down to 1/4″ once ever six weeks. The cat really enjoyed it (afterwards, not during) and was much more affectionate with very short hair. Especially true during the hot San Diego summer. Best part–my allergies went almost completely away. And no more cat hair around the house.
liberal
You stole that line from The Onion, I think.
greynoldsct00
Thanks for the Tunch links! He’s a cool kitty!
Delia
I switched my cats to Felidae after the pet food poisoning affair and I realized that Iams is made at the same factory as the Walmart brand, but just put in a different bag with a higher price. They’re very fond of it, but these cats will eat anything, including dog food.
You can find it at smaller pet stores or organic food stores. It’s about the same price as Iams.