My Career as "Chef des Chats" is a go...

Ok, short note for the masses...raw food is a hit with the kitties!  I'm not sure if the Bach's flower essences are working, but I think that'll still need more time (and more dosing) to figure out if they work.

Now if only my cats would like me as much as they like their homemade cat food...

Mmm...Beefy Oats...

Ahh - the new adventures in feeding my cats raw foods - the not-so-new wonder drug of the animal (and sometimes human) world.  After reading a couple of books on the subject, I find myself experimenting with the concept to see if my cats will enjoy this attempt at becoming more healthy and natural...sort of like my current eating trends.  Just like my cats, my diet is still interspersed with junk food (for me, it's chips and deep fried foods - for them, it's store bought cat food and Temptations treats) - but at least I'm trying to keep the healthy stuff as pure, local and nutritious as I can make it.  

I've been reading that many pet foods are made from diseased carcasses and odd animal sources (including roadkill) whether it's purchased from the grocery store or from a premium source such as a vet.  I can't prove or disprove that scientifically, but it does make some sense after checking out online sources and the books I've been reading, including Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats.  Today is my first attempt at mixing together a batch of (yuck) Beefy Oats, which contains a couple pounds of beef and several cups of oats to make a squishy batch of food (see picture below). 

Appetizing, isn't it?  Funny, it almost looks like the batches of sausage I made a while back, but it doesn't smell as good.  It smells mostly of the kelp that was part of the "Healthy Powder" which is an essential ingredient of the food.  The ingredients in this recipe are supposed to nutritionally simulate what a cat would eat in the wild - i.e. a mouse or a bird - even the goodies that come along with eating a whole animal: bones, feathers, and stomach contents.  Yuck.  But it does make sense for my little obligate carnivores to dine on this goop. Truth be told, it does smell better than your average can of cat food - not as strong an aroma, and the kelp just makes it smell like the ocean (or that flaky fish food from the pet store).

It's not time to feed the little fur balls yet, so I'll have to report back on how they react to the food.  

For the past 2 days, I have been spiking their water and food with flower essences to help settle them into condo life.  Bach's Rescue Remedy is what I've been using, and I'm going to experiment with Larch, Beech and Water Violet to further calm, de-stress and help socialize the threesome.  They've been living here a month now, and I still can't get them to come out and interact with me one-on-one.  Not that I'm looking to rush the project, but I thought I'd try something new to get them to come out of their shells (or from under my bed in this case).  So far 2 of the 3 cats seem to be a little bolder, are coming out when my reading light is still on, and they've even played with the laser pointer (from a distance of course) that Steve & Tony gave me as a "welcome back to the world of cat ownership" present.  I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that flower power will work wonders.  

Right now I'm waiting for my dishwasher to finish its cycle - all the plastic containers that I want to freeze raw cat food in are there.  I'm speculating with some certainty that the cats will eat the food I've made for them.  Otherwise, it'd be kind of insulting that even cats won't eat my meal creations.

Signing off,

Chef des Chats

"I'm a ninja cat...I am invisible..."

Just for kicks I had to add this photo:

If I can surmize what he's thinking, I belive it'd be: "If I can't see her, she can't see me...yeah..."

I walked in on Foster playing in the living room after work and he didn't have time to race to the favourite hiding spot. Whadda guy.

More kittie kronicles - the 3 cat pileup...

Little did I know that cats are stackable like Lego.  Take my 'fraidy cats that still are EXTREMELY shy of humans for instance.  In the shot below, you can distinguish 2 of the bodies by the separation of stripes and greyness piled up against the wall:

What you don't see in the above picture is the fact that all three are indeed stacked on top of each other and hiding the third cat.  Poor Foster is the one squashed underneath all of this as evidenced by the picture below of the other side of the ironing board where you can almost see the dividing line between the top cat (Mercedes) and the bottom cat (Foster).  Oscar's head is wedged between the other 2 butts, and may be that sliver of lighter grey shading between the 2 darker bodies if you look carefully.What would cause such a sight?  Just another setback for little Mercedes who decided that life under the washing machine would be much better than being exposed to the light.  So like the true vampire-cat-caver that she is, she refused to come out to drink, eat or use the litter box for almost 2 complete days, and only stirred at night.  Meanwhile, the boys were looking for, and trying to rescue their sister who didn't want to be rescued at all.  Oy.

3 bucks worth of dowelling from Home Depot, and problem solved - I've got a sliding door blocker so that no kitty can re-enter the washing machine area.  

The boys are now becoming more adventurous and starting to take chances on guessing whether I'm truly asleep, or trying to spring a trap on them.  The other night while I had dozed lightly off (did I mention that I'm sleeping in the living room now to get them more accustomed to my presence?) I woke up to see Oscar's white muzzle in the distance staring at me, while a pair of ears and 2 beady eyes were peering over the arm of the couch directly at me.  Very sneaky and cute.  Once I made eye contact they were both off to hide again, but I think there's some mild progress being made.  After speaking to the cats' foster mom, she mentioned that it had taken about 2 months for the boys to come near her voluntarily - and that was forced with harnesses and a leash to tether the kitties to her, ensuring they got used to humans.  Yikes.

So alas, I wait in patience for the day even one of them decides that I may not be entirely vile after all.  The feral part of them is still holding on strongly.

Gawd these little dudes are a loooooooooooot of work.  I'm happy they're here - but still they're a loooooooooooooot of work.  ;)