Success! I took Bubba to the veterinarian today for his three-week weigh-in, and he’s down to 17 and one-fourth pounds! That’s a one-and-three-fourths-pound drop before the end of the first month! I’m so proud of him.
However, part of his weight loss might be attributed to a temporary hunger strike.
This past week, my husband and I traveled to Oregon for the Thanksgiving holiday. The pets aren’t used to unsupervised freedom for too long. So we left Bubba, Benny and Petey in the care of my highly capable, pet-loving mother, Ruth, who refers to the furry boys as her “grand pets.”
I left explicit instructions for her. She came to our house every day and fed the pets on schedule — one half-cup twice a day for the cats, and four cups once a day for the dog. She played with them several times a day. She even watched TV with them in the evenings (slipping Greenies to them, I’m sure). But she said Bubba didn’t finish his kibble in the same manner he does when we’re home. He would eat only one-third of a bowl during the day and just over half at night.
While we were gone, Mom said that Bubba played a lot with his string toy, actually getting up and swatting it when she teased him with it. He’s a lot more active with her than he is with us! Maybe it’s all those treats she slipped him…
I warned her about his aversion to day-old food, so she cleaned his dish every time she fed them. If Bubba left a lot of kibble behind, I told her to pour the leftovers back into the bag, but she still emptied and refilled the bowl. He must have caught on to our sneaky reuse of leftovers. Either that or he missed us so much that he lost his appetite.
Mmm. I highly doubt that!
I’m a little concerned with how quickly he’s losing weight. Dr. Day said that Bubba should lose four pounds over the next six to eight months, but he’s nearly halfway to his weight-loss goal already. Hopefully, his body will stabilize and he’ll drop the pounds more gradually. In a few weeks, I’ll take him back for another weigh-in and veterinary visit, but if his appetite dwindles again, I’ll take him back to Dr. Day right away.
Regardless, Bubba has lost weight during this past month. I bought him a smaller food bowl, monitored his caloric intake and exercised him as often as I could. It worked! It was hard for both of us at first, but now it’s just part of the day-to-day routine. It’s a formula that works for cats — and humans too!