Sunday, July 09, 2006

Isis Goes to Fat Camp

I love cats. I have always loved cats. I would have no problem whatsoever living in a home with 12 cats except for one minor detail: I’m kind of allergic to them. Now, one or two cats and I’m fine. I’m not really sure how many cats it takes to bring out my allergy, but twelve is definitely over the limit. See, my mom has twelve cats. I love all of her cats (I’ll probably do a post just on her crazy cats in a day or so) but I’ve been living off of Sudafed and Benadryl since coming home, and I’m starting to develop a tolerance to said medicines, which isn’t good. Last night my eyes swelled up, so much so that I could barely see out of my right eye... and I figured it was time to go. No point in having an allergy-free house if I’m not going to use it. So, today I moved into my new home. Of course, I’m still going to be over at my mom’s house a lot (for one thing, I don’t have internet access at my house! For another, I haven’t yet gotten up the nerve to tackle the kitchen, so it’s still pretty unsanitary. Not to mention that I don’t have any plates or bowls or silverware or anything! I'm at my mom's house blogging right now...), but I’ve decided to sleep and shower and such over at my home.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
It really is such a cute house...


Now, like I said, I’m okay with one or two cats. I figured it would be kind of lonely over in my new house without any pets, and as my mom has so many, I figured she could spare one. We talked about it and decided that it would be a good idea to bring Isis with me in order to put her on a diet. See, when you have twelve cats, the idea of regular meal times kind of goes out the window. Instead, there are bowls filled with catfood spread out all over the house, which are continuously refilled. Some of the cats are a bit more gluttonous than others. I don’t know if Isis is particularly gluttonous, or if she just has a low metabolism or what... but that cat is enormous! She weighs at least 20 pounds, and very little of that is muscle (mom does have an 18 pounder who is thick with muscles). It’s hard to control how much Isis eats without disrupting the feeding habits of the other eleven. But, this afternoon I brought her over to my house to begin a month long Kitty Fat Camp. So far, she seems to be adapting really well to being in a new environment: playing, purring, sleeping on my bed, etc. She’s probably enjoying being the only cat instead of one out of twelve. (And as the only cat to occupy both my attention and the cat toy... she's going to get a lot of exercise!) She’s definitely going to get a lot more attention this way. We’ll see how it goes with her diet. If it’s a food consumption problem, I hope that by the time I leave for Korea she’ll be down a few pounds. If it’s her metabolism or some other problem, I guess mom’ll have to take her to the vet after I leave. But for now, it’s Fat Camp. I’ll let you know how it goes.


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Fat Isis

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Left: Echo, Isis's daughter, fully grown
Right: Isis

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Isis in my house: Fat Camp Day One


On another topic, I would just like to complain about people who buy things from Wal-Mart, damage them irreparably, and then return said things to Wal-Mart as if there was nothing wrong with them. I bought a lime green curtain panel for the window over my bed, only to get home and take the thing out of the package to discover that some enterprising individual had cut the thing in half, decided they didn’t like it like that, and then returned it. Now I have to return the damn thing. *Grrrrrrrr.*

5 comments:

Khakra said...

telling ya, visit your allergy specialist, if you have insurance. you'll get some amazing tips on how to tackle your allergies...

don said...

Isis might have a thyroid problem. My cat had a hyper active thyroid and got skinny. I took her to WSU vet school to be treated. They zapped her thyroid with radioactive iodine. Isis might be hypo, or have an inactive thyroid. She might need medication. I'm kind of guessing. A diet might work. But I think I'd take her to the vet. You might feel on her neck and see of there are any lumps.

annie said...

khakra - health insurance? don't i wish! maybe someday.

don - hadn't thought about thyroid problems, although she doesn't seem to have any lumps (other than fat!) - although now that she's by herself and i can monitor how much she eats, it seems that she doesn't eat very much. perhaps she's just nervous at being in a new house, but she's been there about 24 hours and has eaten less than half a full serving of dry food. guess we'll wait and see.

krayzykatlady said...

if this fat camp works out, do you want to take on twilight for the next one? seriously, she weighs 11 pounds (as opposed to her prior 7-8)!!!
this could potentially bring in some spending cash for you, if you eventually become the "hermit who offers kitty fat camps".

Anonymous said...

Ha, that cat is a butterball. We had a cat like that, and my sister slept on him like a pillow. It was awesome.

~Brooke