Thursday, March 04, 2010

Fatso Catso

I have been one to always prize myself on keeping my cats fit and trim, especially since they are outside cats and get plenty of exercise. But then there is Big B (recently nicknamed Fatso Catso by Duke), one of our two black cats we adopted...


You might notice that Big B is BIG. Not only BIG, but FAT. Big B was rescued from my grandmother's apartment complex. He was a little stray kitten that was headed toward the pound. Big B is a great cat. He hunts mice and rats and is very friendly. He is the ideal barn cat and once was a slim trim rat-killing machine.

Well, until we adopted Little T. Little T was one of four tiny black kittens who were abandoned when some neighbors of my parents moved away. Their mother was dead (killed by some animal) and they lived under a gas grill on the back porch.

I went to feed them one day while visiting and three of the kittens (female), were feral, yet Little T ran up to me and begged for food. I had to take him home. When my husband saw him the next morning, cuddling on my lap outside, he said "Not another black cat! Why couldn't you adopt a pretty one?". And it was true, Little T was anything but pretty. He was tiny, starved, and his coat was very dull.

I bought Little T the best kitten chow and his coat grew silky and he wasn't little anymore. However, Big B enjoyed snacking on the kitten food and he grew fatter and fatter... I tried to feed them separately, but you know how cats are, they like to nibble and come back, and Little T's leftovers all went to Big B.

I decided to separate them a few weeks ago and not keep food out after a few minutes. Strangely, Big B kept on getting bigger, and Little T was getting smaller... I was completely stumped. Perhaps the neighbors were feeding Big B? Or he has some type of metabolic disorder?

Well, yesterday I solved the case. I was in the outside workroom (the cats sleep there at night) and noticed that they had knocked down stuff from the workbench. As I was putting it away I noticed a cabinet door was ajar. I opened it and found this:



Yes, a 7 lb bag of dry cat food I had purchased a few weeks ago and had forgotten about. And it was almost empty... Big B had found my stash and had been helping himself for weeks. And growing fatter and fatter...

Mystery solved, and now all food is safely locked away and Big B is on a diet. I noticed that he had knocked some stuff down again from the workbench while trying to find his kitty all-you-can-eat buffet. And he did seem a bit grumpy today. And strangely enough, he seemed hungry. ;-)

11 comments:

  1. Haha, that is hilarious!! I miss having cats so much; darn my husband for being allergic to anything animal-related!

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  2. so i completely relate to this story since i have one cat who just eats when she's hungry (& thus remains skinny) & another who sees food (any kind of food) & "has" to eat it (so not so skinny despite the fact that she runs around like a headless chicken). So no "damn-it (the skinny one) gets fed on top of this huge shelving thing our landlord owns because i can leave the food out to eat when she wants as cujo (the no so skinny one) can't jump up there.

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  3. This made me laugh! I am a cat lover but allergic, not deathly, but enough to make me miserable. I am looking into the hypoallergenic cats but am still shady :)
    However I can live vicariously through others cats :)

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  4. Oh, funny...and I so feel your pain! Since Christmas our "Bernial" (Burnese Mt. Dog meets Spaniel) has "found" and eaten 4 loaves of bread, a box of brownie mix, a bag of skittles and a sack of flour (all purpose). She didn't like the flour so most of it was scattered around the living room, dining room and kitchen. Aren't pets fun? LOL!

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  5. hahahahaa this is so funny! seems like some animals do need help control themselves.
    and I also learned, NO ONE like dieting! haha

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  6. Great story Rita! Wiley ole cat!!

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  7. Hilarious! Not only a hunter of critters, but also a hunter of stashed food. What a hoot!

    mychildsview.blogspot.com

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  8. aww he IS pretty hansom.

    We have a really hairy fat cat named latte. We were told to put her on a diet - she would just eat and then meow for more and i couldnt stand the thought of her being hungry....lol. If inside shell eyeball the kids for whatever they're eating.

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  9. Poor Big B, he musn't understand why there's no all I can eat buffet for him now ! :D
    I have 2 cats, a 7 years old one and a kitten, so they HAVE to eat different food; I found a way for that: the kitten's food is not on the floor, in a place where the older one wouldn't jump to. And when I'm feeding the older one, I keep the kitten with me in another room. Otherwise they would eat the wrong food !

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  10. Big B is so cute. I have a female fat black cat who looks like him. I love black cats.

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Rita