Magic tops out around 20 lbs, which is way too fat. After he completely disgusted Anna this weekend by letting out a long and loud — and very stinky — fart when she picked him up, Anna decided it was time for him to go on a diet.
Unfortunately, Magic got to his tremendous size by over eating. Not necessarily because we overfeed him, but because he eats all the other cats’ food. So the only way to prevent him from gorging is to remove the food after 30 minutes to an hour. But neither Madeline nor Augustus are comfortable with this regime. Madeline may have an extra ounce or two around the belly — what spayed female cat doesn’t? — but she definitely doesn’t need to diet. Augustus is lean and lanky, especially after his summer training regime of squirrel chasing.
Because Magic and Tim (another whopper at 16+ lbs) will wake us up at or before the crack of dawn if there isn’t any food, we feed all the cats their last meal at 11 pm. Even with this diet regime, we always leave their last meal out overnight. However, this morning at 5 am, Augustus woke me by howling his little lungs out. He was hungry.
Surprisingly, Magic hadn’t eaten all the food. So I collected remnants from all the bowls and made one reasonably full bowl for Augustus. I went back to bed. Not ten minutes later, more howling.
I went out to find that Magic had muscled Augustus away from the food and was gobbling it down. After kicking him in the ass, I stood over Augustus while he ate his fill.
Of course, no more than 45 minutes later, I had to get up and feed everyone…
Augustus has come a long way since we first moved to Rhinebeck. He
started out wearing a harness and leash when we went for our daily
walks, but now he gets to roam totally unencumbered. That means he also
gets to pursue his personal war against the squirrelly minions of Satan
infesting the green where we walk.
Augustus definitely has pure speed on his side. The squirrels simply
can’t out run him no matter how they try. But the squirrels have two
advantages: they are considerably more manoeuvrable and they can climb
trees. Many times Augustus has been gaining on the squirrel only to
find he’s now going in the wrong direction. Or worse, the squirrel
leapt to safety and is chittering taunts from a branch high above.
One thing that has truly impressed me is Augustus’ growing
understanding of the squirrels’ evil methods. He now knows to watch the
branches overhead to see where a squirrel is going. He’ll follow slowly
on the ground and is often waiting when the squirrel he just chased up
a tree comes down on the other side of the green. Of course, it’s not a
great challenge to out think a critter with a brain the size of a small
nut. I’m just surprised Augustus has picked this up so quickly.
Perhaps I’ve already told you that Augustus likes
to go walking on a leash. Perhaps you’ve lain awake at night wondering
how I convinced a cat to accept a harness and leash. Well, your nights
of sleeplessness are at an end.
You’ll want the following ingredients:
- Size Right Harness
- This is the best harness I’ve found yet. We’ve tried a couple
and this one is easy to put on and really doesn’t seem to annoy
Augustus at all.
- Retractable Lead
- Augustus doesn’t like a woven nylon leash because it actually
weighs something and he feels like he’s restrained. However
a retractable lead uses a thin nylon string which seems to weigh
almost nothing (plus it’s longer). You can get a good 16′ long lead from PetsMart.
Of course, having all this equipment is great; but it won’t make
your cat like walking on a leash. In the past, numerous people
have weighed in with their advice on helping a cat acclimate to a
harness: all of it turned out to be bunk. The least accurate was, “Put
the harness on him while he’s in the house and let him wear it for a
while to get comfortable with it.” I can tell you first hand, he’ll
never grow comfortable wearing a harness. He’s a bloody cat and cat’s
don’t wear harnesses.
The approach I took with Augustus was to put the harness on him,
attach the leash, pick him up and carry him outside and plop him down
in the middle of the lawn. Suddenly, he really wasn’t thinking about
the harness or leash, because there were squirrels and birds that had
his undivided attention. I did learn to play out all the string on the
lead and lock it to give him the greatest feeling of freedom.
Now all is well: Augustus lays down when I grab the harness and
leash and even rolls over to let me fasten the harness easier. I doubt
he really likes either the harness or the leash; but he definitely
likes what they allow him to do…
