My cat is awesome; beautiful and most likely would win a beauty pageant if cats’ have such a thing. Pukki has gotten a little fat over the last few years.

We also have a couple of dogs that chase our two cats daily. Oh, the cats love their safe areas and the dogs occasionally go out to their other kennel. The front yard is pet heaven. It is about the size of a football field and full of natural trees up here in Northern Ontario. A six foot fence stops our pets from leaving and also stops critters, like a very big bear from entering and eating all the apples. Our two dogs are not smart enough to dig under and our two cats aren’t smart enough to climb over (except once at the gate the old cat, Kiva did so we had to add chicken wire).

I have spoiled my cat, Pukki, somewhat traumatized by the dogs; mostly our Jack Russell Tuuli, I have given her extra food. This has gone on long enough, a couple of years that she cannot clean herself properly. This leaves me or my wife (my wife 95% of the time) to clean her butt. Then a trip to the vets and my Pukki had her pussy shaved. With one problem solved, now she was on a diet.

A few weeks go by and I am much disciplined only the allotted ½ cup of diet cat food a day. I can’t say I saw any noticeable change but I felt good. I hadn’t caved in to those eyes. It is simple. Don’t look into those sorrowful beautiful eyes and indeed I did not cave in.

Well, until I stepped into what I thought was maybe a grape, even though we hadn’t had any grapes lately. Yes, then a second latter, I had heard the sound before I froze. Like when you step on broken glass, you don’t move. I turn my dart board light on and to my horror I lifted up my big toe. A black redness of mouse intestines now was stuck to my toes. My cat had eaten everything except the intestines. I did what anyone would do. I panicked. I started playing Twister. Trying desperately to reach anything I could wipe this goo off my feet. I looked at my long underwear,(kind of cold the last few nights), so they were ready; but I couldn’t bring myself to use them. I also had my leg/knee wraps that I couldn’t bring myself to use either. I essentially stretched my toes and the intestines; I heaved down low enough to use a gum wrapper.

My lovely Pukki does on occasion, when she is on a diet, eat mice. The problem might be that the pet door that gives them access to the great big football field size yard. If my cat is to lose weight, I need to know: how many calories a mouse has?

Written by Barnwood/E.W. Rantala