Is Commercial Cat Food Killing Your Cat?

My staff is rather passionate about this issue, so I’ve allowed her to write a guest post for my blog (since she doesn’t have one of her own).

Is Commercial Cat Food Killing Your Cat?

By F.I. Goldhaber

I’ve told this tale to anyone who will stay still long enough to listen. But, I wanted to get the word out to more people who care about cats, so Editor Kitty graciously allowed me to use her blog.

PLEASE READ this entire post, especially if you have an older cat. I’ve been watching one of Editor Kitty’s online friend slowly dying of what I’m convinced is poison from American cat “food” pushers. It’s very sad.

A year and half or so ago, our three Feline Overlords were suffering from three different maladies. One kept getting yeast infections in her ear, one was rather flatulent, and one was barfing constantly.

The vet suggested a prescription food. Not only was it horribly expensive, but I couldn’t understand why any cat would benefit from eating what it contained. The primary ingredient is peas, with ground yellow peas, pea protein concentrate, and ground green peas making up three of the first four ingredients followed by pork fat, powdered cellulose, and a bunch of chemicals.

Then I read the label on what I had been feeding the cats, a premium brand (I thought). It contained meat by-products, corn and other (unidentified) grain, and things like sorghum, dried beet pulp, brewers dried yeast (perhaps that explains the yeast infections), and more chemicals.

I felt ashamed. I go out of my way to eat organic, non-processed food and I was feeding the poor cats garbage. I set out on a mission. Over the course of several trips, I read every label on every bag of dried cat food at the two large pet superstores. I found exactly ONE that contained no animal byproducts AND no grains.

It still has peas, but it’s the fifth ingredient and only appears once. The first four ingredients are deboned turkey, deboned chicken, chicken meal, whitefish meal, and herring meal. A twelve-pound bag cost more than the forty-pound bag of the “premium” cat food I had been purchasing.

But vet visits are even more expensive. (And, as it turns out, because they’re getting what they need, MEAT, they eat less of this food. The twelve-pound bag lasts almost as long as the forty-pound bag did.)

Once they got used to the new food, four very important things happened:
1) No more flatulence
2) No more yeast infections
3) Significantly fewer barfisodes (and the remaining ones mostly hairballs).

But the most significant thing was one I hadn’t even thought to hope for. The Princess, as Editor Kitty calls her, is eighteen years old. She had been mostly somnolent for several years and presumably at the end of her life span. She ate, slept, groomed sporadically, occasionally asked to be petted and that pretty much was it.

Shortly after I started feeding our Feline Overlords Wellness CORE® Fish & Fowl Recipe, Princess became more active. She will play with toys when it suits her. She bats at the laser pointer or string for a bit if you offer it when she’s in the mood. She’s resumed shoe polishing.

I added a bit of the Wellness CORE® Chicken Turkey & Chicken Liver canned food to their diet and the Princess got even friskier.

We came downstairs one morning not so long ago and found her asleep in a box on top of the refrigerator. Now, I don’t appreciate that she had to walk across my dining room table, kitchen counters, and stove to get there. But I would rather scold her for trying to open the kitchen cabinets than watch her slip away any sooner than necessary.

Every time I pull her out of a closet or shoo her off the table, I remind myself that this was the cat who seemed near death’s door. Now, she acts like a ten-year-old.

Most of us who serve as staff to Feline Overlords adore them and will mourn when death takes them away from us. Why suffer that separation any sooner than necessary?

I have received no compensation of any kind from Wellness CORE®  for this endorsement. Just three healthier cats!

If I Had Thumbs

If I had thumbs, I’d open cans of tuna cans, eat the tuna, and let my roomies settle for the juice.

If I had thumbs, I’d put the peanuts outside myself, wait there for the crows, catch one, and eat it for dinner.

If I had thumbs, I’d open the front door and police my neighborhood, chasing away all the stray dogs who run around on leashes. Then I’d sit under the cage of bird bait and grab a snack.

If I had thumbs, I’d have catnip three times a day.

If I had thumbs, I’d lock fatso chubby in the bathroom, just for kicks.

If I had thumbs, I could get into the cold box and help myself to milk and butter and other good things staff hides in there.

If I had thumbs, I could turn the Internet back on whenever staff left the house and spend more time online.

If I had thumbs, I’d use their accounts to order cases of tuna, Greenies, catnip, and yummy canned turkey to make sure I never ran out.

And none of this rationing out little bits every day. If I had thumbs, I could open my own cans and packages.   If I had thumbs, I’d eat all the Greenies and tuna I wanted whenever I wanted.

If I had thumbs, I could clean out my own catbox, but why in the world would I do that? Staff is useful for some things.

New Editor Kitty Enterprise to Aid Writers Who Self Publish

For the past several months, staff has neglected my website and hasn’t found time to post the blog entries I wrote. They haven’t even provided adequate laser pointer and string entertainment. 

I have only myself to blame. I’m the one who assigned them the project that has consumed most of their time.

As an editor, it’s in my best interest for writers to succeed and in today’s environment, many writers can achieve better success by self publishing. Since combined my staff, together with my friend, artist and photographer Nyla Alisia, have all the skills required to help an author self publish, I told them to offer their services to more writers.

I didn’t realize how much work is involved in starting a new business. Staff says they need a “business plan” and a bunch of other stuff I don’t really care about. I just want them to earn extra money so they can buy me more Greenies, tuna, and canned turkey.

They’re now finally open for business. You can learn more about the services they offer on their website. Hopefully, things will get back to normal around here where I’m the center of attention.

And, for those who think they can acquire my services via this enterprise, I’m afraid I must disappoint you. I have enough on my plate (only figuratively, of course). However, I can strongly recommend my staff for that. She’s almost as good an editor as I am and, frankly, isn’t as easily distracted.

The Evil Machine

Good grief, how much more does staff expect me to do? I already have to supervise two writers, monitor the birds stealing the bait staff puts out, chase fatso around in what seems to be a fruitless effort to get her in shape, and hunt for spiders. 

As it is, I don’t have enough time to sleep properly and some days, I don’t get in any string therapy at all.

But now staff has acquired a new monstrosity that requires my supervision. Apparently, a relative had a spare robot thing laying about and, without consulting me, handed it over. This evil machine toodles around the floor, sweeping bits of dirt, and sometimes my toys, into its maw.

It makes an incredible amount of noise and has to be watched closely as it constantly changes directions without any warning.

Staff claims this Roomba thing makes their lives easier, keeping up with the hair shed by three felines. What about mine?

 

“Take charge, take action, and keep moving forward.” — Sage Cohen

Despite being written by an author foolish enough to think dogs make good companions, Sage Cohen’s The Productive Writer is a useful tool for any cats who believe their staff could be more productive writers.

Although Sage leaves out the most obvious way a writer without cat supervision can improve their, as she calls it, “butt-in-chair” time, she does offer many useful tips on specific ways writers can become more productive.

The book is entertaining enough to keep your staff reading. Sage engages her readers in conversation, asking questions and making them think. She gives examples of her own successes, how she achieved her goals, and what advice she found useful along the way.

Sage doesn’t just sit and preach how to become more productive. She provides a blueprint while giving individual writers tools to define how they see success and develop plans to reach their goals. “Often it is the approach that seems least appealing or intuitive that offers the best results.”

“Productivity is a lifestyle choice,” according to Sage, and “there are endless ways to establish and sustain a productive writing life.”

In addition to the 208 pages in the book, Sage also has created a number of online writing productivity management tools to help your staff “write more, stress less, and create success,” including worksheets, sample schedules, templates, and logs.

The Productive Writer is not, like so many online treatises about writing, full of grammatical errors and typos making it a pleasure to read. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it to feline writers as it contains speiciest references to activities such as drinking coffee and fraternizing with dogs. It also makes no allowances for the time lost trying to negotiate a keyboard built for monkey descendants’ fingers.

However, I would strongly suggest that any cats who supervise writers they think could be more productive should require their staff to read this book. I intend to insist that both of mine do so.

A Very Special Anniversary

This week marks a very special anniversary. Four years ago Saturday, I decided to trade the freedom of living on my own for the comfort of a staffed home.

When I sensed the weather changing and the cold New England winter approaching, I kept my eye out for someone to take care of me. I watched him for a few days. One night, when he returned to his apartment I approached the man who I’ve since hired as staff.

I spoke to him and wound myself around his legs, a behavior I know monkey descendants find appealing. He invited me inside and offered me an excellent meal of cooked meat, immediately confirming that I had made a good choice.

Since then, my staff has moved across the country and four more times in an attempt to find a location in which we can both be more comfortable. He acquired a female staff person to help him attend my needs (although she brought two additional felines to the mix).

While I often miss the freedom of roaming where and when I chose, I must admit there are many advantages to living indoors. I have a nice selection of warm dry places to sleep, excellent food (and treats) available in ample quantities, clean water, and various entertainment options.

Especially as the weather turns colder and the rains pour down , it’s nice to sit in the window and watch the chaos outside without worrying about where I will sleep or what I will eat.

Staying Mindful of Staff’s Needs

My roomies can be incredibly rude. I’ve see them standing on one of staff’s chest, sticking their noses up against staff’s face in an attempt to wake them up to get attention.

I never do that. I recognize that staff needs what little sleep they get. How anyone can survive on only seven or eight hours of sleep each day, I’ll never understand. If I don’t get at least 16, I get cranky and tired.

If I need staff, I make myself comfortable on the bed and pay attention to their breathing and movement. When I determine that one of them is awake, I walk toward the head of the bed so they are able to provide the scritching I require.

They seem to appreciate my consideration. They never yell out my name in disgust when they wake up or push me away.

I think many cats neglect their staff’s needs. While it’s appropriate to expect staff to serve us well, as owners, we must also take our staff’s requirements into consideration.

After all, staff can’t care for us properly if they become ill from lack of sleep or not getting enough food. (They require so much more than I do. I sometimes sit, amazed, watching the quantities they consume.)

I do make one exception about interrupting their sleep. When I’m cold, if neither is awake, I push my head against my male staff’s hand until he rouses enough to lift the blanket for me. Then I crawl underneath and cuddle up to him for warmth. He goes right back to sleep, so I’m not depriving him. And I assume he appreciates my body heat as much as I do his.

Wordstock Winner

Congratulations to Nyla Alisia who won a weekend pass to Wordstock 

Nyla posted on her Facebook status: “I am so excited about Wordstock this weekend! I will breathe the air of ten-thousand poets! ~wiggle~ Thanks for the information E.k. EditorKitty.”

When told she had won my contest, she posted: ” ~laughing` Now I am twirling too!!! Thank you so so so much!”

Nyla is an award-winning published poet, a photographer, a spoken word performer, and a radio celebrity. She is the founder and host of The SpeakEasy Cafe’s open-mic poetry radio show and Inkwell, dedicated to helping writers and move forward in their craft! She devotes herself to the betterment of poets, doing everything she can to encourage taking poetry out of journals and giving it a voice.

Wordstock is the largest celebration of books and writers in the Pacific Northwest. More than 200 writers and 20 panels appear on several stages over two days. I would love to attend myself, but as usual, the organizers are speciest.

My staff will be there. They both volunteer. You can catch up with them this weekend, October 9th and 10th, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

 

Free Wordstock tickets

I’m giving away free tickets to Wordstock. I can’t use them myself, because as usual, the speciest organizers won’t let me attend.

I think a celebration of books and writers is a wonderful thing and Wordstock is the largest such event in the Pacific Northwest. More than 200 writers and 20 panels appear on several stages over two days.

To win a weekend pass to Wordstock 2010 (October 9th and 10th at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon) tell me what you find exciting about books and writers in your Facebook status report. Be sure to tag me (@E.k. EditorKitty) so I’ll know you want to participate. (If you’re not on my Facebook friends list, you may comment here.)

Deadline is end of day tomorrow. I’ll pick the best response on and announce the winner on Facebook and Twitter. (Grammar counts.)

Win free tickets

I’m honored to support Wordstock, the largest celebration of books and writers in the Pacific Northwest with more than 200 writers and 20 panels on several stages over two days.

You can win a weekend pass to Wordstock 2010 (October 9th and 10th at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon).

In your Facebook status report, tell what you find exciting about Wordstock. Be sure to tag me (use the @E.k. EditorKitty) so I’ll know you want to participate. (If you’re not on my Facebook friends list, you’ll need to add me to do this.)

Deadline is October 5. I’ll pick the best response on October 6. (Grammar counts.)