Ok I’m sure I’ll get some giggles and shaking heads from this, but it’s important to me because of their histories and I wanted to share. My husband and I don’t have children yet (a major reason why I started this weight loss journey) so our two cats and pug are our fur babies. We try to keep them healthy and happy, just as we would human children. Those of you with a Wii Fit know you can weigh your animals, too, so today we all weighed in (including Ricky, but I promised I wouldn’t share his results haha). So here’s a little background on our lovelies and their weigh in today.
About two years ago, our gray cat, Junior, was diagnosed with feline diabetes and we had to start giving him twice daily shots of insulin. I was devastated. Not only because we have diabetes in our family and I know how difficult it can be to maintain a good diet and healthy regimen as a HUMAN, let along taking care of a diabetic cat that can’t tell you how it’s feeling or if his sugar is low or any of that. I remember the vet having me practice giving him a shot with saline and he bit at my arm and I broke into tears. I never thought I’d be able to do it twice a day, plus watch him for signs of diabetic shock and deal with all of that. Of course with the diabetes, Junior then went from a diet of purely dry kibble to mostly wet pate cat food with a sprinkle of kibble to keep his tartar down. When we go out of town, we have to find someone to take care of him or bring him to a boarder that knows how to administer shots and be knowledgeable of signs. It was a huge change for us, but Junior stuck with it and we stuck with him. Two years later we’ve dealt with a lot, but he’s stuck with us and we’ve stuck with him. His weight has fluctuated but we like to see weight gain, and in the past month he’s GAINED 0.2 pounds. Go Junior!!
Lady is our pug. When people see her, most are amazed with how slim and trim she is! A lot of pugs we know are quite chunky haha. When I met Ricky (and Lady) over 7 years ago, Lady was almost 23 pounds which was above where a healthy pug should be. Short faced dogs overheat quickly in the summer, and it’s harder for them to breathe cold air in the winter, so appropriate exercise is difficult. She can’t run around for hours and hours and hours like a bigger dog can, so we take her diet very seriously to help with that. We put her on a decently strict regimen of food but she still ate twice a day and gets treats a few times a week. We don’t feed her table scraps (unless you count what falls on the floor during meal prep and she scarfs up before we have a chance to bend down haha). Over the years her weight has fluctuated a bit, but as of today she gained 0.2 pounds and is at an even, svelte 19 pounds, which is right in that healthy range of 18-22 for pugs! Go Lady!!
Last but not least is Orion. He’s featured this week because his story is a little different. Orion was a shelter cat that I got back in 2009. He was the only cat in our household amid a bunch of other dogs at the time. When my husband and I moved to our condo, Orion only had to deal with Lady, which he didn’t mind. When we moved into our house a few years later, we aquired Junior. Anyone with more than one cat knows that they can eventually become the bestest of friends, but usually at first that is not the case. Over the last four years they’ve had their ups and downs, but normally get along. When Junior came around we changed the litter on Orion so he retaliated a bit (ew). We got that under control, thankfully. When Junior got diabetes, we changed their diet. This in turn stressed Orion out a bit but he enjoyed the wet food, we just gave him less and a little bit more dry food. It affected him and he started putting on stress weight. It wasn’t from the food, because we didn’t feed him any more than he was getting, but I think seeing Junior get more food than him (since he had to keep his weight under control) and also the change made it harder. A month ago I got on the scale with Orion and he had put on THREE POUNDS. Three pounds in a year is like 20-30 for a human. That’s a lot. So in the last month I’ve made sure to vary his food a little more. A little less wet, a little more dry. Sometimes all dry, just to see if it made any change. Today Orion was DOWN almost a POUND! Great job Orion!! You’re our Biggest Loser this week ^_^
I know this was a silly post, but the health of your pets is important, too. There are just as many risk factors for obesity, diabetes, heart conditions, etc. with pets are there are with humans. They can’t take care of themselves the same way we can as humans, and it’s our responsibility to keep them safe, healthy, and happy. I’d like to think we’re doing an okay job ^_^