Friday, September 28, 2012

Sorry Kittens, your stuck with me


I finally got in contact with the shelter and it turns out they are not only full up but there are no spaces at any of the vets for them to neuter these kittens so I've been asked to keep them over the weekend and we'll try again next week.

I have been trying to prepare them for moving on, telling them that they were going to leave and have their own homes to run around in and beds to sleep on etc.. well when they realized that they weren't leaving they pretty much shunned me and started playing then tried very very hard to escape the room when I decided to leave.

Such a hardship for me, putting up with all this cuteness for a few more days :)
you should notice their micro attention spans.. 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Lets try this again


Please Vote for Fleurp

      Thank you.

Thankful Thursday


Well I don't have any decent kitten photos to share (they are way too fast for anything more then a blur at this point.  When they do stop they are either in the litter box or up on my chin wanting attention) So I thought I'd do a Thankful Thursday post.  I've had a lot on my mind lately and none of it really on the good side, so I figured this would be a good exercise in "pulling myself up from the muck" as I've been worrying about Fleurp a little too much lately, I've come to the conclusion that Muffin needs a dental, we just moved our work office and that was a stresser and a half- not to mention I've already worked in this particular office years ago and I know it is going to be COLD and the wiring is so bad I can't use a space heater so I'm going to be COLD this winter.

So..

I am thankful that right now all my kitties are in good health.  yes, there are issues, but they are manageable

I am thankful that I didn't lose any kittens this year. *knock wood*

I am thankful I foster for a shelter with an 80+% adoption rate for cats and that they actually imported kitties this year to help out.  They are also building a feral enclosure to help house feral cats so they don't have to just put them down when they come to the shelter.  I'm thankful they adopt out shy and skittish kitties and that there are people in the general public who are willing to adopt them.

I  am thankful there are other people out there who feel as I do about NBC's Animal Practice.

I'm thankful I have "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" on my Tivo to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VffXZ44_LQ (at 2:30 BANG! Right on the head!!)

This is one of those movies from my childhood.  Ranks right up there with the Creature Double Feature and Godzilla movies.

I'm thankful I have a job.

I am beyond thankful that while I'm writing up this post watching said Mr. Chicken my husband is emptying and refilling the dishwasher..

I'm thankful for fall in New England and the beautiful color of the trees.
Photo by Ctd 2005
I'm thankful that Jack loves me so much he wants to walk all over my keyboard and stick his butfur up my nose - cause he thinks it is his best side.

I'm thankful I have found the simplest and easiest bread recipe on the face of the planet - even if it does take at least two days to make it.  And I'm really thankful for Grass Point Farm Butter that I put on it, because it is FABULOUS!!

and I have to wrap this up fast because Skippy just showed up and apparently I need to be drooled on NOW.  I'm so thankful that he takes care of this drool deficiency I keep ending up with.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tiki update


She was happy and active this morning and willingly ate.  So what ever bugged her last night was transient and is all better! yea!!  now to schedule them to go back :( to be neutered and go up for adoption :)  I'm sure their furever homes are just waiting for them.

The good and the bad


2lbs 1 oz
102.8
Well Theo hit weight last night.  Unfortunately Tiki wasn't doing very well.  At first she snuggled with me and that was wonderful, but then she kept snuggling with me, and kept snuggling, to the point where I was getting concerned.  When my husband showed up the rest of the kitties went and played but Tiki kept snuggling.  Now I was pretty sure something was wrong, but then she jumped down and went toward the food.  I said to myself that I must be being paranoid, but then she vomited. :(  I picked her up and she purred, but then she stopped and felt like she was shivering.  She continued to snuggle with me even while my husband scooped the box - which at this point I KNEW something was really wrong.  Then she got up and went to the litter box and vomited again.  There was a pile of vomited up food in there that looked like it was there for a while.    She vomited a fourth time after I took her temperature.  You should have seen the look of pure annoyance that she gave me while I was taking it - so she can't be that bad off.

Paws crossed this is just a blip, that something isn't agreeing with her right now and soon she will be as right as rain.

Seems to be a pattern with me this year.  I take kittens that I'm only supposed to have for a short time and by the time I can get them back something goes wrong.  *sigh*

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

so close..


1lb 15.5 oz
At two pounds they go back to be neutered.. dude, couldn't you have eaten just a bit more this morning???
Lady, you are just weird!!
He still feels like fur and bones, but I think it will probably be in his best interest to get away from his sisters and into a home of his own (or with one sister) because of how slowly he eats.
I bought home more food for them since they seem to strongly prefer chunked food.  I put this on top of the post they climb and Niki and Tiki HAD to investigate.  I said this was not a good idea, my husband said, if there is a bad idea, the kittens will find it..

Monday, September 24, 2012

Test


This is just a test if the blogging ap I downloaded. If this had been an actual post it would have been accompanied by kittens.

Kitten vs Feather


apparently one of the kittens pulled a feather off of one of the feathered toys, and Niki found it.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of her trying to 'kill' it.  Mostly because I was laughing too hard as I was pretty sure for most of the 'kill' the feather was winning.  She stood up on her hind legs trying to shake the feather into submission and fell over several times.  It was a riot.

Then one of her sisters decided that the feather must be an awesome toy and tried to steal it.  Niki got very possessive and grabbed it in her mouth and ran across the room and tried to evade the thief.  These kittens are very big on parkour and watching them run side ways on things in chase almost made me fall over from laughter.  Finally they gave up and Niki was able to enjoy her prize.  I let her play with it while I watched then took it away from her when interest started to wain.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

File under: What were they thinking?


How, what, where, when and more importantly WHY??? because yes, that is a ping pong ball in their litter box.

(please ignore the horrid condition of the side of the litter box.  they only recently got over having diarrhea and I didn't want to throw out all the litter and scrub it down only to have to do it in a week when they hit weight and go back)

A successful take down


After the take down attempt of yesterday, today he was wearing pants and was a little less on guard..


Please Vote for Fleurp.  Thank you.  (link removed while moderncat.com deals with malware)

Friday, September 21, 2012

Vote for Fleurp


995!!  :)

Vote here  (link removed while moderncat.com deals with malware)

Take down attempt


We are SOOO going to take you down!!
Let me know if you need help!
Is it wrong that I tried to get the kittens to climb up my husband's non-panted leg to add to the fun of this post??

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Interview with a Fosterer - Random Felines


Welcome to the first of what I hope to be a very long running series of posts called Interview with a Fosterer.  I found the idea off The Fabulous Animal Rescue Project (which has been abandoned) and loved the idea.



My first lucky victim interviewee is Jeanne from Random Felines.


Introduce yourself and where do you hail from?  Jeanne from Ohio, with Maestro (18 yrs old), Tim & Tom (9 years old), Mozart (6 yrs old), Ivy (4 yrs old), Spud (4 yrs old - but not related to Ivy) and Junior (2 yrs old)

What rescue group, shelter or sanctuary do you foster for? CHA Animal Shelter and Colony Cats

What kinds of animals do you normally foster? Kittens and momma cats. Age doesn't matter. No bottle babies though, I am just not home enough. I will take them healthy or sick (I don't mind giving meds). I can't take adult males however - the age cut off is about 7 months. Any older and Tommy views them as "adults" and gets crabby. I tried it once and Tommy sat outside the bathroom door (where I keep fosters) and stalked the guy inside the room.

How did your adventure being a fosterer begin? I was a volunteer with the local humane society (I have since moved on from there). Tim and Tom had been brought in and were living in one of the two community rooms. They were adopted and brought back about 5 days later saying Tim wouldn't come out from under the bed. There was an effort being made to keep the boys together since Tim was so shy and scared. About 2 weeks after they were returned, a fight broke out in the community room. Tim caught the worst part (there is a scar on his nose where the hair grows in opposite directions now) and someone told the vets that Tommy started it. I couldn't believe it unless someone had gone after Tim first. Due to their size, the shelter was saying the only option would be to separate them. I suggested putting them into the special adoptable program. They agreed. I showed up for a meeting a couple of days later and was handed a foster application and told I could pick them up Saturday. Huh? What?? I got suckered. I took them to adoption events, which they HATED. After four months, everyone had adjusted so well that I decided to just adopt them and add them to the household.

Tim and Tom

How do you keep yourself from becoming too attached to the fosters you help? And have you ever adopted one? Adopted one - how about 4 (Tim & Tom, Mozart and Ivy). And Spud and Junior showed up as strays and never left either. It is hard not to become attached. I don't think you can do this and not get attached. If you don't feel something like that then I think the animals suffer in their adjustment. I think the big picture is knowing that there are homes out there - even if it takes time. And by getting the current fosters adopted, I then open up a space at my house to help the next group that needs help.

What is most frustrating for you as a foster? That my skills and space are continually in need. I tell peoplel that as much as I love kittens, I would also love to be out of the foster business. SPAY & NEUTER PEOPLE!!! I had a momma cat this spring that was noted on her intake paperwork that the person who found her had also seen her around the previous summer. The momma cat and all 6 of her kittens ended up dying. If this woman had taken a little bit of responsibility LAST summer, this cat could have been spayed and adopted out when she was younger and not had to survive on her own, get pregnant and sick and lose her life.

What is most rewarding? Seeing the shy kittens or the sick ones bounce back. There is a great reward working with a sick kitten and seeing them get healthy and get adopted. Same with the shy ones...to see them go from terrified to outgoing and seeking attention is wonderful.

What experience moved or inspired you the most? I think it would have to be the only bottle baby I have raised. She was heard by a neighbor under a set of stairs and after pushing her on a broom and pulling her out, we discovered a tiny week old white kitten. I took her to work with me for 2 weeks and then she took over the house. I ended up finding her a great home. Plus, she was the inspiration to start working with another neighbor to TNR the adults in our neighborhood. We had one litter of kittens the following summer and one this summer (from a momma cat I had never seen before). All the kittens have been adopted and the moms spayed and released. Bottle babies are hard, but when she started to walk she got the nickname "baby duck" since she would follow me around the house squawking for her dinner.
Bug

Do you have pets of your own? How do they respond to the foster animals? Yes - there are 7 house cats here. All rescues - though Maestro was the only one that was sought out - everyone else is a stray or foster failure. After over 140 foster kittens and momma cats, they are just resigned I think. Tommy and Spud hiss at the bathroom door for the first couple of days and then give up. If they know there is a momma cat in there, they will give the door a wider berth after having one angry momma cat come charging out several times. Junior LOVES the kittens - when they get big enough it is someone for him to play with. And Tim loves that where there are kittens, there is kitten food (I have used him to help socialize feral kittens before).

Gin and Maestro
What advice can you give to someone who might be wanting to become a foster? Have a specific space set aside. I bought my condo before planning to foster. So the fosters end up in the bathroom. I can't tell you the last time I took a shower without an audience. And know that it isn't all fun and games. Kittens get sick and sometimes they die. And it is heartbreaking. When that happens, I grieve but then also know that my skills are still needed. And I learn something new from each group. Just when I think I have seen it all, something new turns up. And be prepared for the fun too - kittens on the run can be better than cable.

When you are not saving animals what do you like to do? Work. haha  Gotta afford the cat food somehow. I love writing my blog and spending time with friends and family. I love to read as well which is a great quiet way to spend time with my animals and my fosters.


And now the questions from Inside the Actors Studio:

What is your favorite word? snoopervising
What is your least favorite word? abuse
What turns you on? laughter
What turns you off? anger
What sound or noise do you love? the sound of my 8 year old niece laughs - she cracks me up
What sound or noise do you hate? an animal in pain
What is your favorite curse word? oh - this is hard....I like "dammit" a lot. I tend to use son of a ___ cause I can stop before I get in trouble.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I would love to have enough money to start my own sanctuary
What profession would you not like to do? teacher - kids scare me. :)
If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? good job


Thank you so much Jeannie!  I really appreciate you being open to doing this and sharing more of yourself with me and the blogosphere!

Until next time!  (any volunteers?)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Please Vote for Fleurp


Click here

two quick clicks will get Fleurp a vote.  It is one vote per IP address every 12 hours.. no registration required.


She has been stuck in 13th place for eons now, which is sad, because each week when the kitty with the most votes becomes the kitty of the week it is removed from the list.  Some people are still actively seeking votes to get their kitties to be kitty of the week and over taking my sweet little girl.

So I'm going to plug for a few days and see if we can't move her up in the ranks. Hope you all don't mind.  and for those who voted and continue to vote for her, I thank you.

Wordless Wednesday



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Belly Time


Riki getting kitten massage
Tiki being cute - oh such a challenge for that one
Theo toes
Theo and Thea
Thea practicing her flirting

Monday, September 17, 2012

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Weights


OK everyone, weigh in time!
Theo: 1lb 12 oz!  good job young man,
Thea: 1lb 12.5 oz.. Yes, that does make you delicious.
Riki: 2lbs.  You have hit weight young lady.
Tiki: 2lbs 2oz.  And you are too sweet thing.
Niki! weight your turn!!
Niki: 2lbs 2.5 oz.  Yes, you are the biggest aren't you?
Weights always come before breakfast :)

Saturday, September 15, 2012

PNC follow up - What I know about nutrition


There are a couple of things that I feel the need to get out of the way before getting into this post because how we feed our pets can sometimes be as volatile as politics and religion.

First off, as a reminder, these "What I Know" posts are what I know to be true due to the different literature I have read and my understanding of the information I have access to at the time and my own experiences.  I do not believe this is the end all and be all of the info to be obtained about any given subject at any given time and I am totally open to changing when I learn of something new.

Second, simply because I think this way does not mean I am judging you on your choices.  I once fed dry food out of the biggest bag at my local grocery store.  My vet told me all the food was the same and my cats seemed fine on it.. until they weren't. Life threw things at me and I was forced to learn.  Em became diabetic.  Both Jack and Eli blocked with urinary crystals.  For my cats, and for my piece of mind,  a dietary chance was necessary. All three plus countless others in my care saw dramatic improvements in their health with a "simple" diet change.  Only you know what is best for your situation and when it may or may not be appropriate to change.  Your cats might be doing just fine on what you feed them and if they are that is great.  I know happens, I've heard of many cats living long happy healthy lives on "junk" food - just like George Burns lived to 101 smoking and drinking.  If you have a cat that stresses at the first sign of a dietary change, then the stress of changing the diet might do more harm then good.  Only you can decide what your situation is and what works for you and your kitty.  I can only share what I know.


So here we go..  Cats are obligate carnivores.  That one is not up for debate.   Everyone believes that cats are carnivores; except for one woman - I met her online and she decided her cat should be vegan and stated unequivocally that cats have evolved enough to be vegan. The debate is were they designed that way or did they evolve?  I believe they were designed.  However I am fully capable of using the evolutionary rules to justify what I believe as well.  I know not everyone believes in creation, and I feel that if you view the facts with in the set of rules established by evolution then my arguments/beliefs hold water. .  Besides, if this post simply said "Because that is how God designed it" this would be a very short post, and frankly it would be pretty unconvincing to a lot of people

So from an evolutionary standpoint, cats have been carnivores since they have been cats. They evolved as desert creatures.  They evolved to eat a diet of small rodents and anything else they could catch or scavenge. Because of this, they have a highly acidic stomach acid and a shortened digestive tract to help keep virulent pathogens at bay. They don't have a high thirst drive due to the lack of water and evolved to make due with the hydration that comes from consuming their pray. Having to hunt in the desert, they are crepuscular - being most active at twilight times - because that is when their prey is most active.  That is also why their eyes evolved as they did to be most accurate when there is little light available.  The whiskers, ears and nose evolved to pick up small movements to help them hunt. In the evolutionary record there is no evidence of cats ever having eaten anything else.


But yet those who make most of the commercial pet foods have decided that cats only really need the "protein" / "fat" / "carbohydrate"  part of this diet.  They disregard the prey as a whole and complete diet and decided they can recreate what is necessary by using bits and pieces of inexpensive plant based ingredients.  Only problem with that is they do not fully understand the prey as a whole, and simply disregard anything they don't understand.  Case in point, despite commercial pet food being available in the US since the 1890s they only started adding taurine to cat food in the 70s.  Well you say, that was forty years ago, surely they know all they need to know by now.  Well science just figured out that all that 'junk dna' in the human genome isn't just junk.  I am learning that science is only starting to understand what all this piecemeal nutrition is doing to us humans.  Why should we think it is any different for animals? especially since animals don't have the legal protection that humans do.

But back to the "science".
Ingredients in jars at the PNC tour.
You wouldn't believe what it took to get this photo.
The experts in pet piecemeal nutrition believe they can properly nourish your cat with corn gluten, wheat gluten and hydrolyzed yeast (which btw, is another name for MSG) for protein and vegetable or soy oil for fat.  These ingredients are all plant based, but they are high in protein / fat so they believe they are acceptable. These ingredients are often going to waste because they are byproducts from other food processing and or very cheap to acquire; they believe it make sense to use them in pet food.  Well sure, if you completely disregard the 'packaging' of this protein / fat.  Plant based nutrients are NOT the same as animal based nutrients. How they created, how they are formed, how they are digested and how it is utilized by the body are all different. Studies are starting to show that when cows eat a diet that they evolved to eat (grass) their meat have higher concentrates of nutrients we do want, and lower concentrations of nutrients we don't. Then there is the fact that when you force cows to eat corn it makes their stomachs so acidic they have to be given antibiotics and antacids to keep them alive.

But yet they keep trying to find ways for animals to eat foodstuffs that they did not evolve to eat.  They take a little from jar A and a little from jar B (and they use the entire alphabet) and say here, this is better for your cat then that one ingredient bird or mouse.

And when our cats suffer from it, it must be our own fault.  We MUST be feeding too much, or too often or give too many treats.  It can not possibly be the fact that the science is faulty.  So they refer you to your veterinarian to guide you in your food choices; but yet your vet rarely has much training in feline nutrition.  From my understanding they take one course in nutrition as a basic requirement (they can take more, some do, kudos to those vets) and that course touches on the nutrition for all animals and is weighted heavily in large animals.  Human doctors do not study nutrition either, so don't take this as my condemning the profession as a whole.  If you have real questions about what you should be eating, your doctor will refer you to a nutritionist.  Many vets do participate in continuing education about nutrition, but all too often it is very often sponsored by pet food companies.  They come in and explain why their food is awesome and how to 'prescribe' it to patients. So as a general rule (and again, there are exceptions) your vet is just well versed in the dogma of the pet food companies and why they believe their diet is healthy.

I did mention before this science believes that a feeding trial of less then a year is appropriate to determine if the food like products they are creating is healthy enough for the lifetime of the cat.  Does this all sound logical to you?

Another severe issue I have with these types of scientists and their industry funded pseudoscience is the whole GMO (genetically modified organism) issue.  Please realize that any processed food you have more likely then not has GMO ingredients in it.  (unless it is labeled 100% organic, and even then there could be a chance it has some questionable ingredients in it.) Be aware that many crops are almost exclusively GMO these days. (stats from Wikipedia, but I've seen them in other reports) 80% of Hawaiian papaya 13% of the zucchini 85% of the world's soybean crop 95% of sugar beet (out of which 90% of the sugar in the US is derived) 86% of the US maize crop - and frankly it is scary just how much corn the US consumes regardless if the word corn shows up anywhere in your menu.  And still the experts in nutrition talk of moderation.

Short history on GMO.  Once again scientists thought they had a better, a faster way then evolution.  So they spliced a gene from one plant (or animal.  Yes they are discussing putting animal genes into plants) into another for traits they wanted or to eliminate things they don't.  Surprisingly enough they were able to convince one body of the government that GMOs were basically the same as the original plant (aka GMO corn is the same as non GMO corn) so that they did not have to do any studies on the safeness of it.  But they convinced another body of government that it was different enough to be able to patent and make money off it.  This alone is enough to make me want to take a second look at it.  But now that the studies are starting to come up to show this frankenfood is just not safe I am doing my best to stay away from it.  I would imagine if it is damaging to a human it would also be to my cat.  Many countries have banned GMOs from their food chain.  California is currently trying to simply get it labeled to but are being fought hard by companies with a vested interest. (if they are so darn proud of this stuff why do they not want us to know when we are eating them??)

Right now we are all in one great big health experiment.  Corporations who used to make wholesome healthy foods and products felt the squeeze from one shortage or another or maybe from desire to make it cheaper in order to make money or have it be able to sit on the shelf or on your counter longer now make foodlike products.  Bread used to be made from flour, water and salt and the wild yeast in the air. Now this is an ingredient label.

Image from  http://theysmell.com/wonder-bread-ingredients/ 
Great breakdown on the ingredient list on her post
Remember when your chocolate bar had chocolate in it and wasn't chocolate flavored?  Remember when ice cream was actually made with cream and wasn't labeled a frozen dairy like product?  (I was at the store the other day and some containers completely left off any proclamation of what it was other then the "Peanut Butter & Jelly" flavor with a bowl that implied it was ice cream but the fine print said "frozen dairy dessert" with ingredients too difficult to pronounce)

Sadly the food cat eats went from being a single ingredient (mouse. bird. lizard.) to this:
Chicken meal, corn, corn gluten meal, wheat, powdered cellulose, wheat gluten, pea fiber, natural flavors, chicken fat, dried beet pulp, sodium silico aluminate, vegetable oil, grain distillers dried yeast, fish oil, calcium sulfate, potassium chloride, psyllium seed husk, fructooligosaccharides*, salt, choline chloride, monosodium phosphate, taurine, DL-methionine, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol (source of vitamin E), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), niacin, biotin, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin (vitamin B2), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin A acetate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin B12 supplement, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement], trace minerals (zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, copper proteinate), L-carnitine, rosemary extract, preserved with natural mixed tocopherols and citric acid
So see all that red up there.  That is all the plant based ingredients.  See the *?  That is because fructooligosaccharides is a sweetener!  Apparently someone forgot cats can not taste sweet.  Might there be another reason for it?  I so hope so, but frankly I can't imagine how I could ever think it is OK. DL-Methionine is one quick and easy way to correct the imbalance that is caused by all those plant based ingredients.  I have seen it recommended more then once and used it myself to help lower urinary PH. (a cat's normal urinary PH is 6.0-6.5  a cat eating a lot of plants often has a urine PH near 8).   You should check out the ingredient list on the new dry thyroid food out there.  Not a single animal based protein among the ingredient list.

"Rose" using dry food as litter.
She has not been the only foster kitten I have had that did this.
But the food has "the nutrient profile that they determined that a cat needs for optimal health" and they absolutely believe that is enough.   Aren't you interested in how they determine what is optimal?  I am but I can't find out; and I am not alone on that.  Did they find out at what range the cat was so deficient it caused problems and then so excessive it was toxic and decide that optimal was in the middle?? Maybe they simply fed the food and the cats did "better"; but what were the cats eating before they decided this.  Was it the diet they evolved to eat?  Was it the diet they wanted you to buy? or was it an even worse sub optimal diet and thus when they fed the nutrient profile they thought would be optimal they did better and thus that must be the the optimal diet?  Did they take in to consideration when you lower or raise one nutrient stat it has an effect on others? (like you need Vitamin D to absorb Calcium)  I don't know.  There is a lot I don't know about how this is optimal for my cat's nutritional needs. Considering there is so much science can't even agree on human nutrition, I feel safe to assume that they just don't know for certain either.
Eli and Fleurp eating mouse and either llama or goat sold at hare-today.com

Have you ever taken a good look a the marketing of pet food?  How many pet foods have you seen with nutritional claims you recognize from your own health stand point.  How spinach is good for you.  How fruits and vegetables and whole grains are good for you. Many only have fruits and veggies in their advertising. Why are they using these selling points for an obligate carnivore?  Might it have something to do with the fact that these claims are recognizable to you the human and in the lexicon of good health?   I say it does.  I say they are trying to convince you these things are healthy for your cat because they are known to be healthy for YOU.   They want you to forget that humans are omnivores and cats are obligate carnivores and lack the digestive enzyme amylase to properly break down plant based foods to get at the nutrients.  They also lack the enzyme beta-carotene 15,15'-monooxygenase  which helps herbivores create Vitamin A.  Carnivores must get their Vitamin A from the herbivores that do have this enzyme.  Then there is the packaging.  How many of them are packaged in colors that evoke 'natural' or 'wholesome' foods.  The soft browns, the hand drawn images to evoke the feel of a farmers market. Then there are those with fields of wheat in the background.  A lot of them dance around the imagery they want you to think about or probably more importantly feel about their product with out ever using words they are not legally able to use because they don't actually meet the definition.  Like with the above mentioned PB&J frozen dairy product that makes you believe it is ice cream. The imagery is often so subtle that unless you are looking for it you don't realize what they are trying to do.  To me this is engendering trust through lies.

So you know, I am going through my own journey with nutrition at the moment.  I have been overweight all my life and I have never really understood why.  I do not eat excessively .  Every time I count my calories (and I do my best not to lie to myself as I really want to know the answer) my calorie count says I should be much smaller then I am (according to the calories in vs calories out science I should be eating twice if not three times what I am to maintain the weight I am currently at).  I grew up eating a S.A.D and did my best to follow the food pyramid.  I ate low fat, high fiber, processed food diet and got heavier and heavier.  Several years ago I decided to 'get serious' and ate a higher protein, lower fat,  low glycemic index carb diet that was full of processed foods that was overtly supplemented with soy.   I lost almost 70lbs on this diet and I was thrilled.  Everything was great... until it wasn't.  I got colder and colder and fatigue set in so hard I could barely do more then get up and go to work and even that was difficult because of the brain fog I was dealing with.  I was thinner, but I was almost useless.  Since I was following what the experts said to do to be healthy I figured I would just get through it.  Only I didn't.  At one point I stopped losing weight and started gaining despite not changing anything.  I figured I MUST be eating more then I realized or I MUST not be exercising hard enough, so I buckled down.  I measured everything I ate and got a BodyBugg to measure my caloric burn.  According to the data I had at least a 500 calorie deficit every single day and yet I was still gaining and still so tired and constantly cold. Finally I went to my doctor, who ran tests.  She then referred me to an endocrinologists who ran more tests.  My doctor ran more tests.  She ended up referring me to a specialist in 'leaky gut' and 'food sensitivities' and candida.  I didn't believe I had any of these issues, but since I didn't know what was wrong with me I went through the tests.  I had so much blood drawn..I changed my whole diet again to get rid of the top food allergens (no wheat, no dairy, etc).  I saw an "energy" guy.  She even had me do HCG.  Nothing helped.  I continued to gain weight.  This last doctor is convinced it is Lyme despite the fact I have never had a tick on me for more then 8 hours and the last time was over 10 years ago.  All the money I have spent trying to figure this out is more then a little scary.  I finally had enough, and have been working on just accepting where I am at this point in time.  I'm not happy about it, because there is obviously SOMETHING off so I continue to read all I can about the different theories of nutrition.  I spent years following ideas the doctors had, each one crazier then the last.  I decided to just opt out of the Corporate America Food System and concentrate on eating nutrient dense food, and reading as much as I can.  Doing so has lead me to WAPF (did you know saturated fat is actually good for you, and the study that led us all to believe it wasn't was faulty?) and then to Matt Stone and his 180DegreeHealth website.  He has a theory that we are just not eating enough and that you should RRARF and eat all the food you want when ever you want, but you should stay away from GMOS, fructose and sugar and vegetable oils (I'm paraphrasing, go to his site and read his words, he explains it way better then I can) after an almost life time of food restriction, eating like this feels good.  I am feeling better in that I'm not constantly freezing and I am able to do more then work and sleep.  And if nothing else it is nice to not have major food restrictions.  I am feeling much more comfortable in my food choices and enjoying food again.  It doesn't make up for not being in a size 10, but eating all this cheese and full fat milk and yogurt and grass fed beef does make me smile.  And as a result, I have seemed to finally stop gaining weight, I've got more energy they I used to (but so far not as much as I wish I had) and I'm not wearing sweaters in the summer.

Basically long winded story to tell you that I believe there is a lot more to nutrition then what "They" know or even what I know.  But since we as a nation are getting sicker and sicker, wouldn't it make sense that the problem very well could be with this scientific approach to piecemeal nutrition?  Doesn't it actually make sense to go back to the foods that each species ate when we evolved into what we are today?  That each individual species got a complete and balanced diet from what was available?  I can't see any life form evolving to need something it can't possibly obtain on its own.
While I believe every cat should be eating a raw based diet, I know full well that it is not an option for every cat.  Be it that their owners are unable or unwilling to provide it (for what ever reason, this is not a judgement, simply a statement) or the cat is unwilling to eat it.  The cat has a very VERY strong instinct to not eat any food it did not eat as a kitten.  This is because while it is with it's mother, she would provide the food for the kitten practice killing on and to eat.  If mom did not bring it home to the kitten then it was most likely not nourishing for the kitten.  Cats who were raised on one type or flavor of food will keep to that restricted diet even to the detriment of it's health unless the owner is extremely clever and persistent in the transition - and even then it isn't always easy to outwit a cat.  I believe with my entire heart and soul that any choice / decision you make for your kitty out of love and respect is the right one no matter what I or anyone else thinks of it (even if you come to decide it is a wrong decision in the future).  I will more then likely suggest reading materials and references if you say decide you want to feed your kitty vegan but I will do my darnedest to not make you feel bad about your decision.  There are just too many 'experts' out there with too many letters after their name and they all seem to have a different opinion on pretty much everything.

Please don't take this post to state or even imply that I think I'm perfect in these regards.  I feed my kitties dry food as 'cookies', and I give them canned food I consider to be equivalent to 'junk' food because they like it.  I bought and ate that PB&J frozen dairy product (it was really gross don't do it) and have eaten more caramels and pieces of dark chocolate (even if they were as healthy as I could find with no ingredients that sounded like man made chemicals) then I care to mention while writing this post (it didn't help that one major rewrite disappeared when I saved an earlier version over all of my work)  I strive to eat well, but I also strive to be happy with my food and let it nourish not only my body but my soul.  As much as I would like to eliminate emotional eating, I do it because it works.  Bread / cake / sugar releases a flood of serotonin and makes me happy rather quickly (that and I enjoy eating it so that makes me happy too) and it helps me sleep through the night.

I also know that what works for me and my cats, might not work for you and yours.  While I have read way too much to believe a vegan diet is a long term solution to anyone's good health I do accept that there are a lot of people on it that are doing very well.  My co-worker is currently on a raw vegan diet and she has seen major improvements in her health.  There are cats who seem to be unable to handle raw food and thus remain on a cooked diet.

Every cat is different, just as every person is different.

So.. this is what I believe and this is why I believe it.

Btw.  I have to say that the book The Omnivores Dilemma has had a profound effect on how I look at food.  I can't recommend it strongly enough... no matter what you believe about  human nutrition.


Interesting reading on the subject:

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Well this could be dangerous


I moved the web cam to the floor. I probably shouldn't have asked my husband to 'fix' it (it goes off line for some reason) cause now I just want to move the cam to catch their attention

 must.. get.. back.. to.. wor.. awwwwww so cute!!

A few random photos


No real theme today.  although seeing as these are ADD kittens, the fact that they don't provide me a cohesive set of photos to make a fun themed post only makes sense.  So I present you the ADD themed post.

What's this?
Riki's beauty mark
Tiki wishing I'd put the camera down so she can get on my face
Riki in a box - I think that's Tiki with the ball
Niki (re)discovers the trackball
Feathers are cool! (Theo)

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