Sassy cats – Falling off the wagon

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Hazel on top of the cat tower

Sad Hazel on top of the cat tower

Longtime readers know that Hazel went on a diet a year and a half ago and lost close to five pounds. That’s a lot of weight for a cat. She wasn’t happy about it but she didn’t have a choice. It’s not like she could go buy a cheesecake to eat in the closet.

In the course of gaining weight she developed thunder thighs that don’t jump. I put the food for the other cats on top of a dresser. She couldn’t jump up there.

She is capable of stretching and can climb the cat tower. The shelves are 18” apart so it’s easy. The more weight she lost the more agile she became but she still couldn’t jump 3 feet.

We recently moved the cat food feeding place onto a new cabinet in the “cat room.” It’s 38” high. It was safe from Hazel.

I was feeling a little badly for Mollie. She’s going on 13 and has to jump for dinner. I put a small stool next to the cabinet for her. It was on the side and not noticeable.

Really dumb idea.

Mollie did not like the stool and continues to jump from the floor but the stool gave Hazel a leg up. (I never said she was a dumb cat!)

For two days the cat food was completely wiped out. That is so unusual I planned to set up my sneaky camera to see who was eating it.

Didn’t have to. I came around the corner to see Hazel guzzling food with a smile on her face on top of the cabinet. Her weight gain was a half-pound but (against her will) we are working on losing it.

Moral of this story – cats are not at all dumb. They can problem-solve with the best of us especially when it involves food. She is at the store buying cheesecake as we speak.

Hazel at her largest

Hazel at her largest

56 thoughts on “Sassy cats – Falling off the wagon”

  1. Poor Hazel, if the foods there and the opportunity to get it arises……you can’t keep a foodie from her food Kate. She must have been pretty big if she couldn’t jump. Glad she is back on the wagon.

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    • She’s a small framed cat who should weight between 9 and 10 pounds. At her biggest she was dragging around 18 pounds. That would be morbidly obese! She’s at 13 now and I’m ok with that. She doesn’t want to be a model.

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  3. Hazel loves food.
    Humans have to manage that on her behalf.
    It’s all okay.
    … Oops I forgot for a moment that she’s a cat and not a dog.
    Replace its all okay with … It has yet to be determined the way forward that is agreed on by both species.
    xo

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  4. They will always make fools out of us. That is their mission, especially a little smartie like Hazel. We have a new cat in the shelter that came in with his two friends because a toddler has a cat allergy. This cat weighs 20 pounds. I hadn’t personally seen a cat as huge as this guy except for a cat that used to be at the shelter that was just a huge cat bone-structure-wise. This one is ahem plump!!! How much does Hazel weigh now?

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    • Today was weigh day for Hazel. She is at 13.2 pounds. That’s a good weight considering her bloom to 18+ lbs. but she’s a small sized cat. Ideally she should be around 9 but that will never be. She loves food too much and I can’t be that mean. As long as she’s healthy and her hygiene is good, I’m ok with it. I can’t even imagine giving up 3 cats. I wouldn’t date allergic guys. No use getting involved when cat allergies are a deal breaker.

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      • I can’t imagine giving them up either. I’d put air purifiers everywhere and confine them to part of the house if I had to, but there is no way I’d give them up.

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        • or at least re-home them so they don’t have the “shelter” experience in cages. House pets aren’t used to the confinement and unlike dogs who like the security, cats don’t do as well in a small cage. Fortunately many shelters are going to cat “rooms” where a small group live together. There are windows and catbeds and towers for them to enjoy. Let’s hope someone adopts them together.

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          • Our shelter has the roaming cat room and inside the room we also have some cages because they need them for when they are first introduced and when they are recovering from surgery and if they are feral andor/ scared, etc. But we get them out of the cages pretty rapidly. That wasn’t always the case. When I started there were two old-timers who were in cages all the time and I kept yakking it up about them and now they are both happy to be free in the roaming room, although they both REALLY need homes because it’s stressful to live with all those cats in one room, with dogs barking loudly right next door, and the possibility of illness and having to go to ISO, etc. I would love to take both of them . . . . My daughter told me NO.

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  7. You know, I might just have my husband put my dinner on top of the fridge… nothing else has worked (actually, I am lying. I have lost 10 pounds and am currently wearing pants I couldn’t get into for two years. So I could get the food…)

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  10. Hazel is an absolute doll. Love her grumpy face. Cats are smart indeedy! Had to get trashcans with lids. Discovered over the course of a week or so that our one mischievous cat now knows how to slyly open the lidded trashcan.

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  11. With only one (fat) cat, I don’t have this problem. But it has become an issue with the dogs. 15 year old Dog Three now gets the choicest soft and aromatic food so that she will eat at all. Perennial Puppy Dog Four thinks she should get the same. Dog Three no longer has the strength to scare Dog Four off from her feeding bowl . . . Any suggestions?

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  12. They do problem solve. We’re quietly talking about an intervention with HRH RC Cat. Her food is limited despite her complaints, but we found she is gobbling left over dog food when Molly isn’t looking. Dog food is not good for cats….Luckily we have discussed with Molly to either get off the couch and do more aerobics or her food ration is going to be cut…she maintains it’s just the hot humid weather making her look thicker…and besides, she trying to save the cat from being fat by not leaving left overs. Now we suspect they are in this together

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    • They are indeed! When there are more pets than humans in the house, nothing is safe or sacred. Hazel will eat any food (chips that hit the floor, crusts) that she finds. She is definitely a Hoover.

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  13. Sneaky Pete Hazel! I laughed out loud at this! Our cats are outside cats, but if dinner is late they hurl their bodies against the back door! Sounds like thunder.
    Keep a close watch on Hazel, Kate. Now that she’s had a taste there is no telling what she will do. Maybe pay the others off to knock the food to the floor! 😉 ~Elle

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  15. Neither of my cats are grazers. But when I feed them they are side by side and they eat so fast that it is gone before you know it. Would it be possible to lift Mollie up to her food? Then she would not have to jump and Hazel will just have to wonder why she doesn’t get such service!

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    • I have no idea when Mollie eats. She is not a food motivated cat. I’ve seen her eating at 3 a.m. (my potty run). When I see her sashay (and yes, she does sashay) to the food cabinet I will lift her if I can catch her. Mostly she runs off. I don’t think she likes special treatment unless it includes scratches behind the ear.

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  16. Hazel’s motto: “Never put off until tomorrow what you can eat today.”

    And she’ll have the last laugh: “Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals, dying of nothing.”

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  17. Hahaha! Just call me Hazel … the face kills me…lol…I’m only laughing because as soon as I read “stool” I knew. Never underestimate the determination of a woman on a diet…with or without fur. Good laugh today Kate!

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