A Topic for Caturday: Fat Cats
In my family, we rescue feral cats, integrate them into our human and cat family, and keep them indoors for their own safety. Some of them get fat. We call it the feral rescue syndrome. Having to forage for food and not always finding it outdoors, they do not believe that food will always be there for them and overeat, especially if free feeding is allowed. Fat cats have a problem: they get diabetes; they get cancer; they have trouble walking and breathing; they could die younger than necessary. Our beloved Murjan, who crossed the rainbow bridge at the age of 19 -- not bad for a fat cat with diabetes and cancer (chemo for 3 1/2 years) -- actually became non-diabetic as he lost weight from attention to his diet. Unfortunately, while he put up a good fight, the lymphoma ultimately won out. (Cancer is something even humans cannot win with, in many cases.) With the vet's guidance, we put him on a weight-management cat food, DM. It comes in dry and set variants, and he got both. In f