Boot camp for all | For Animal Lovers

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Since I don't have a picture of Suzy and Brody, here is one of Morgan doing boot camp her way.

Since I don’t have a picture of Suzy and Brody, here is one of Morgan doing boot camp her way.

My friend is off on another trip and I am cat-sitting. I am not a professional but I am reliable, dependable, cat-knowledgeable and of course, free.

I can dish food and scoop poop. But even more important, I exercise them so they don’t get bored.

Bettie’s old cat Suzie is easy. When she was younger, I would take her to my house and she would play with my cats. As she got older, we had some ‘pecking order’ issues that weren’t worth resolving with the short stays so I would visit her in her home.

Now she spends much of her time looking for and testing out the best napping spots, patches of sunlight and occasionally checking her food dish. All this is not unusual for an older adult cat.

Earlier in the year Brody, a male kitten with the energy of a cat on steroids, joined the household.

He is incredibly friendly and active. He would invite burglars in if they would play with him. He would show them the family jewels too! He’d shower them with kisses. He would run circles around them and then roll over for a belly rub.

Brody is now between 9 and 12 months old. Somehow, even with all the energy and running around, he has…umm…blossomed into a full-bodied cat. When I went over yesterday, we did kitty boot camp.

There is no judgment here. I have four cats and one is pudgy. I don’t know why. They all get the same food and the youngest (and skinniest) tends to steal everyone’s leftovers. Somehow Hazel has managed to weigh more than she should. Way more. As in I ought to do something soon before her skin bursts.

Brody was definitely up for the boot camp although he got winded faster than he should have. He also seemed to have some….ummm….flatulence. Why is it that cats get all farty when they are around me? Mine do it too.

He ran the length of the house ending in a beautiful, full-scale somersault (fart). Impressive. Then he ran through a maze (fart), over and over and over again. Pretty exciting (except for the fart part).

He leaped up on the table (in a single bound) to smell my coffee just to make sure it was good (it was) and then jumped back down (no fart this time!). This went on and on for a half hour.

When I left, I felt confident that he had a good workout and his digestive system was airless. He would take a nice long nap to recover and perhaps have a little snack.

On the other hand, I was exhausted, my coffee was gone and I had a full day of work to do. How did I come up with the short straw?

26 thoughts on “Boot camp for all | For Animal Lovers”

  1. Like children, I wonder where our cats get all their energy from – especially our 5-year-old male, Jean-Louis. Reggie, our female, only seems to run when it’s dinner time or to avoid an encounter with Jean-Louis.

    Dave and I also cat sit for one of our neighbors. We play with them and/or socialize with them. The 17-year-old cat is just content with a few head rubbies. (No unwarranted air releases, thank heavens!) 🙂

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  2. The energy level younger cats have is amazing. We’ve had older cats for a very long time then Linus came along. He’s 4 years old and ridiculously energetic. We forgot how active they can be, especially when he jumps into our bed at 4am with a toy.

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    • There is something about 4 a.m. My cats get up around then for the first meal of the day, followed by the first poop, pee and then a little play time chasing each other up and over the bed. No wonder I have bags under my eyes. It couldn’t be my age.

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  5. I have never had a “stinky” cat until Teddy. He not only farts his poop is breath-taking…not in a good way. But we have gotten a pretty good schedule worked out for the poop thing so it can be taken care of before it makes the whole apartment smell. The farts well they are not too awful…

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    • There are stinky and non-stinky cats. Jake is not smelly in any way including gas. His fur smells really good. Hazel is a smelly cat with it all — gas, poop, I even think she gets body odor. Mollie and Morgan both get gas especially when excited or nervous. It maybe something I feed them but I don’t know what. They get a variety of food.

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  7. Your friend on vacation thinks you’re the best cat-sitter ever! Brody and Suzy are so lucky to have a second mommy who loves them all most as much as #1 mom! Thanks girlfriend!

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  9. Oh my, I’m still dealing with three relatively young kitties, and they do indeed bounce off the walls at times. They may need a little time at Kate’s Boot Camp for Naughty and Flatulent Felines!

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  10. I am exhausted just reading of all this activity! I like that you keep the cats exercised and all, it is good for them. We were lucky to have people come over to take care of our cats and make sure they played and got cuddles.
    Oh and my Ernie would also let in burglars as long as they play monkey with him!

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  11. Brody sounds like a real character. Morgan is simply elegant.
    RC was a very active kitten ( and I had never had a young cat, so I tried to get her to exercise…be she soon decided it was more fun to sit around and watch me try to engage her.
    Cat boot camp is more fun than doing laundry.

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