Currently, 3 cats share our home with us. They graciously allow us to live here and in exchange, they are happy to bother us for food and sometimes sit on our laps or come by for some furry loving. Two of the cats are ours and one is our daughters - living with us right now because she works in Africa where he can't go.
One of our furry babies has been overweight for years. Always the vets would say "feed him less" and we'd say We DO! Finally we got a cat expert who realized that his hormones were running rampant and no matter what we fed him, he always thought he was hungry. So much money and much special food later and many trials at keeping him separate at eating time, he is losing weight and has only about 1 1/2 kg to go. The result has been wonderful in that he doesn't act like a fat walrus quite so much anymore and has some more energy to run around with our daughter's cat who is a good 9 years younger.
To keep him on track, we take him into the vet monthly for a weigh in. Sort of like an animal Weight Watchers. I get the encouragement, he gets on the scales, and everybody goes "oh how wonderful!". And because we have 3 cats that all periodically need to go to the vet, we have 3 cat carriers. I was having trouble finding one big enough for him without using his airline crate which is a monstrous heavy duty thing. Finally I found a good one at Amazon - my shop all for almost everything when I don't want to leave the house. It folds flat when not in use and is big enough for him at his top weight.
I had it out last week for his trip to the vet for his weigh-in. Of course, nobody wants to get into it when they need to so it's always sneak up on whichever cat needs to go to the vet and stuff them inside the carrier and quickly zip it closed before the cat can escape. At which point, the cat inside starts crying piteously and all other cats in the house rush to the carrier to mock them. "Ha, ha - it's you and not me! See you later sucker!" Lucky, I have learned through bitter experience to make sure ALL the zippers are closed except the entrance zipper as it is harder to catch a cat after they have run out of the carrier because you forgot to close one of the zippers.
When I came back with my fat boy last week and let him loose back into the house, the young fellow, my daughter's cat, decided the carrier was a great place to play. What fun to pop in and out of the top and sit there and hunker down with just his eyes at exit level to see if he can scare any cats wandering by. Or just fun to go in and have a short snooze for a bit. As we are basically slaves to our cats needs and wants, of course the carrier is now sitting out in the dining room so he can play with it and use it when he wants. But I know when it is his turn to get in it for a trip to the vet, it will suddenly become a dangerous and avoidable place where it will be a chase to end all chases to catch him and stuff him inside his current loving play area! Oh the joys of having cats and stuffing them into cat carriers!
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