A week has passed, and Bubba is still talking to me.
And talking and talking and talking.
He lets me know when his food bowl is half-empty. He lets me know when it’s three-quarters empty, when it’s almost empty and when it’s completely empty. He shows a lot more affection (or so it seems) and moves his body a lot more.
So far, this diet thing seems to be working — even if he is just using me as his personal chef!
I purchased two small 6-ounce stainless-steel bowls for Bubba’s and Benny’s food. I’m feeding them a half-cup each twice a day — in the morning, around 5 a.m., and in the evening, around 5 p.m. The smaller bowls work like a charm. They almost always have a little food at the bottom, so Bubba doesn’t panic nearly as quickly.
We’ve been playing with an old shoestring with a Catnip Banana tied to the end (his all-time favorite toy). He’ll actually pounce and bat it for five or six minutes at a time. We played as often as I could, probably four times a day.
Then, of course, he collapses and crashes for a few hours.
Keeping Bubba away from Benny’s food bowl hasn’t, surprisingly, been too tough. After studying his behavior over this past week (the food bowl is in my office, so I can watch him eat), it seems that he lets Benny eat his fill, and then he eats a little out of both dishes. After that, he’ll stick to one bowl or the other, nibbling throughout the day, while Benny takes the other one.
Bubba has developed some interesting behavior issues — he tackles and wrestles with Benny more often and he tears up paper (though I haven’t needed to use my shredder all week). When we adopted him four years ago, he did some paper shredding to express emotion (good, bad or otherwise), so we always have a double-wide cardboard scratcher around. Maybe I should get some more of those things and spread them around the house …
I can’t tell if he’s lost any weight yet. His belly and thighs still jiggle when he walks. This week, he can look forward to a little more exercise, maybe six times a day. We’ll see if he can handle it!