Buy Walking VideosLinda Was A Fat Cat
Linda was a fat cat.
We knew she was getting sick because she started getting thin. In the end, she wasted away to a skeleton with fur.
When she was fat, we worried about her and put her on a restrictive diet. It never helped her get thin. It just made her a pest at feeding time.
When she finally died, I regretted every morsel of food I denied her. Why did we nearly starve her every day? It didn’t help make her thin?
She lived to be seventeen years old, which is a long, healthy life for a cat. The fat that she had back in 2001 didn’t make her less healthy. I should have just given her normal food and let her eat from a kibble dish like I did with Maggie.
Since September when Linda died, I’ve been thinking about this. What if it all is the same for me?
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March 7th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Sometimes the choices in front of us are all crappy. We do the best we can, and make the best choice at the time. I’m sure your cat knew in other ways that you loved her.
We are facing similar issues with our cat. We got her from the animal shelter a year ago. Her immune system is compromised, and she gets sick often. So we have been dealing with trying one thing after another trying to lengthen the time between doctor visits. The latest thing was trying to get her to take medicines. Every morning this was a traumatic event for all of us — the cat, my husband and me. It did not seem to lengthen the time between medical crises. So we asked ourselves if the psychic trauma of trying to force meds into her was worth the risk of physical disease. We finally chose to give up the meds, and allow her to at least have a peaceful and loving time with us between vet visits. We have no idea how much longer she will live.
I also had a fat cat once upon a time, and put him on a diet. He informed me every day that he was not happy with this. It’s stressful to live with. We want our pets to be happy. And we want them to live long healthy lives. And we really can’t know if the decisions that we make are the right ones, or the best ones.
In terms of whether it is the same for you, I think that you have the opportunity to ask yourself more complex questions than a cat can. You can weigh positives vs negatives, now vs later. This is a good topic, with no easy answers. It is certainly something to blog about over time.
People have different “set points” — the weight at which their bodies want to be. Fighting your own natural set point can be a life-long struggle. Studies are now indicating that “overweight” people who are fit (!!!) and who eat a healthy diet (veggies!!!) are not any more at risk of dying early than thin people.
On the other hand, there is a great deal of discrimination against people who don’t fit the current “fashion” shape. In the 40s and 50s actresses who were stick-thin had to apologize for not looking like Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield. Nowadays any woman who looks like Marilyn Monroe has to endure insults from everywhere and she feels like she has to apologize and deny herself everything she enjoys so that she can be accepted as a desired person.
Whatever your body weighs, you are a valued person. I think it is more important to weigh whether what you are doing is giving you the quality of life that you want. As I said above, often there is no clear-cut obvious choice. There are advantages and disadvantages to every choice. It sounds like at the moment you are wondering if the advantages of denying yourself some treats so that you can be fashionably thin is worth the disadvantages of feeling deprived. Only you can answer that. But you are a wonderful person whatever you decide.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
((((HUG))))
March 8th, 2008 at 8:11 am
I’m so sorry for you loss! She was a beautiful cat (both fat and thin).
March 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I’m sorry for your loss. My old kittly looked very much the same, before he was diagnosed with diabetes. The insulin helped him, but keeping his insulin levels regulated was difficult. He passed away 2 years ago. So, just wanted to say, I do understand…Take care.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:16 am
16 year old Cat that wastes away….. Thats not due to the food you fed her. A healthy Cat would eat anything once it gets hungry enough. Perhaps like many older cats (most cats) die from hyperthiroidizum or dieabities. My vet said that the majority of cat deaths when the cat is over 12 years old is either diabities or hyperthyroid. My cat is 14 and she started wasting away. she looked exactly like your skinny picture. She has a hyper active thyroid and the meds got her back up to her standard weight in 6 weeks.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:30 am
Nearly all older cats lose weight as they get older. You did not make a mistake in trying to keep her from getting too fat, indeed you may have lengthened her life. mlc, DVM
August 5th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
did you ever take her to the vet once she started losing weight and fur?
August 6th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
As soon as she started losing weight, we took her to the vet. The doctor diagnosed her with kidney failure and we were able to keep her alive and relatively comfortable for a year after that diagnosis. She didn’t start losing fur until the very end.