Fat Fred

Am not being mean or fat-shaming a fellow human being.  Fred is a three year old male cat.  At his most recent routine vet exam, he thundered in at 16 lbs., 32 in. long from nose tip to tail tip.  As the vet said then, "He's a big boy."  Today he weighed 19 (19) pounds.

Today's appointment was because Fred loves the red dot laser pen cat toy, and will chase it like a maniac for about 3 minutes and then just lie down on the floor.  Because he's fat, because this was a new behavior, we hauled him off to the vet for a cardiac exam.

She was polite about it, but was smiling as she told me that cats and dogs do not have heart attacks.

She went on to say that, yes, he is bigger than he needs to be and should be put on a diet (which is already in effect eight hours later) because in three years, at age 6,  he will be middle-aged and if he hasn't lost weight, a prime candidate for diabetes, just the same as Diabetes 2 in humans.   

This diet is going to be harder on Richie than Fred.  Richie feels that every living thing should have a full belly at all times.  He would feed the world if it could make its way to our front door.  Countless neighborhood cats who dropped by for a snack would tell you that. 

Having had a diabetic cat, I do not want to have another one (2x daily injections, carefully calibrated until the right amount is determined.  Frequent vet visits to determine right dose; daily urine strip testing and logging.)   So, Fred, want more kibbles?  Sorry, I'm going to have to Just Say No.