Diet? I've Never Heard of Such a Word

Weight gain.  Such a touchy subject.  Especially on Tate Street.

The felines of Tate Street have lived under the assumption that their home is an "all-you-can-eat buffet, 24/7" establishment.  This is not an exaggeration of fact.  This is the truth.  Everytime someone would wander into the kitchen and simply meow....a can of food was opened and deposited on the plate.  Did not matter what time of day or night...food was given.  In addition, two bowls of dry food are kept filled all day and night for free-feeding purposes. 

Feddy has always been the most fit.  Feddy does not care for wet food.  Dry food only and IT HAS TO BE FRESH!!!!!  I don't care if just the top layer of food is gone, she will stand there and meow until the bowl is filled (overflowing) with fresh dry food.  If her food bowl was a beer cooler, the beers on the bottom would never be rotated to the top.  Feddy's weight never varies due to her eating dry food.  She never gorges.  The other two...what a different story.

Lacy and Puppy are habitual eaters.  If the sun comes up...they think it's time to eat, if it rains...they think it's time to eat, coffee pot turns on?....you got it...they think it's time to eat.  If allowed, they would be perfect applicants for The Biggest Loser. 

Puppy is the fattest of them all.  I know she has to weigh 15 to 16 pounds easily.  If you compare her to a weight chart for cats...she is in a class by herself.  Beyond obese.  When she sits down, she looks like a grey penguin. 

I shudder to think of the expense of feeding these people.  When Richard would get up at 2:30 am, he would be followed into the kitchen by two furry blobs and he would proceed to dump not one, but TWO cans of food.  Oh my lord.  In addition, these people would wake Ceji up at all hours of the night and she would stumble into the kitchen, pop-a-top and the feeding frenzy would begin.  They never ate it all, it was just a fix they needed to get through the night.  The waste would just be thrown away.  It had to stop, not only for their health but for the health of the checkbook.

A diet was implemented.  It had to be, if not for them, then for my dog.  You see, Dolly is very old and I try to adhere to a very strict diet and feeding schedule for her.  The problem started when Dolly realized that there were two feeding stops on the way outside.  She hit them both.  Ceji refers to it as "cleaning the plates," I call it for what it was...overindulging.  I literally have to pull her, sliding across the floor, to get away from the food.  But that's enough about Dolly...back to the cats and their revised eating schedule.

They would receive one can in the morning and one in the evening.  That still didn't work.  So we went to phase two.  Instead of a full can, they were each given a teaspoon of food in the morning and late afternoon.  If they grew hungry throughout the day, they could take a few bites of dry food.  Lacy actually lost her weight and is now hanging firm at ten pounds.  Puppy still hasn't committed to the program.  She is in denial.  The adults sometimes have a problem adhering to this feeding schedule as well.  At the time of this posting, I am looking at a plate with wet food on it (more than a teaspoon) which will be thrown out because they took one bite and walked away.  Oh wait...Puppy just wandered in and is eating.  SURPRISE SURPRISE 

Pulling their intake back has helped.  They don't go through half of the food they used to.  If we can just get Puppy on the right track, all will be good.  If not, do they offer liposuction for cats?