Staybridge Suites is a modest hotel that has lots of rooms and a high percentage of guests that are "long term" like myself. We're all staying in the hotel for a month or more while waiting for things to happen. For me, I'm waiting for my husband to get his "official" paperwork that will tell us for sure when we are moving and where and what we take with us. Then we leap into action and start doing things to get ready for the move, hopefully. We have sort of started early in getting the cats ready because there is a time frame on taking them overseas. We hope to be within the time frame or close to it so we started early on them, even without the "official" paperwork.
For other families here in the hotel, they already have their paperwork and have shown up in this area to make the move. They are looking for housing, finding transportation, putting kids in schools, getting doctors, etc. etc. As they have mostly come from different states, they don't have the problems in moving animals that you get with moving animals overseas. Staybridge is good about letting people stay with menageries. Most people here with pets have more than one. I have two cats. The people across the hall have two dogs, a bird, and a bunch of guinea pigs. I think that's the only bird in residence at the moment. Other people have multiple dogs, multiple cats, hamsters, mice, fish, but luckily no one is staying with a snake at the moment. I really wouldn't even want to know that.
So with the other animals in the hotel, my cats are very intent on listening at the door constantly. Something interesting might walk by or something interesting might make a sound across the hall. The other animals in the hotel don't bother me. They are all quieter than the other guests!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
changing bowls
The Changing Bowls
Puff, our tabby, is on a diet. I have mentioned how he gained weight when he was in the kennel even though they were supposed to control his food. Now I cannot be lazy about it anymore but have got to make him loose weight. So, I have to measure out food for him and put it in a bowl for him, he eats and then the bowl is put away until the next time. The food stays in the bowl all day because it is measured. Since I am doing this for him, I measure the food for Godiva too and she gets the same treatment. Hopefully, I will be able to get them on the same eating schedule at some point. Last night, one wanted food at 3:30 and the other at 4:00 and then again at 4:30. When kitties are hungry in the middle of the night, nobody sleeps.
Before going to bed, I try to give them some food so maybe they will last longer before the tummy calls in the middle of the night. Both of them seem to feel that the food in the bowl is no longer very good. It has been there all day after all. Both of them seem to feel that the food in the other bowl would be much tastier and better. Both of them try to sneak around me to change bowls and get some out of the other cat’s bowl. I am too clever for that because I am standing right there to make sure they do not do that. Puff glared at me and then picked up a piece of cat kibble with his paw and sniffed it in disdain. He dropped it back in the bowl, looked at Godiva’s bowl again, with lust in his tummy, and finally consented to eat out of his bowl. I did get several more nasty looks from both cats as they coveted each others bowls.
No matter. I am sticking to my principals here to make both cats lose some weight and I will not be swayed. I think my hubby and daughter have opened a pool on how long it will take the cats to break me.
Puff, our tabby, is on a diet. I have mentioned how he gained weight when he was in the kennel even though they were supposed to control his food. Now I cannot be lazy about it anymore but have got to make him loose weight. So, I have to measure out food for him and put it in a bowl for him, he eats and then the bowl is put away until the next time. The food stays in the bowl all day because it is measured. Since I am doing this for him, I measure the food for Godiva too and she gets the same treatment. Hopefully, I will be able to get them on the same eating schedule at some point. Last night, one wanted food at 3:30 and the other at 4:00 and then again at 4:30. When kitties are hungry in the middle of the night, nobody sleeps.
Before going to bed, I try to give them some food so maybe they will last longer before the tummy calls in the middle of the night. Both of them seem to feel that the food in the bowl is no longer very good. It has been there all day after all. Both of them seem to feel that the food in the other bowl would be much tastier and better. Both of them try to sneak around me to change bowls and get some out of the other cat’s bowl. I am too clever for that because I am standing right there to make sure they do not do that. Puff glared at me and then picked up a piece of cat kibble with his paw and sniffed it in disdain. He dropped it back in the bowl, looked at Godiva’s bowl again, with lust in his tummy, and finally consented to eat out of his bowl. I did get several more nasty looks from both cats as they coveted each others bowls.
No matter. I am sticking to my principals here to make both cats lose some weight and I will not be swayed. I think my hubby and daughter have opened a pool on how long it will take the cats to break me.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The pain of dieting
The Pain of Dieting
Our brown mackerel Tabby is a tub of love. He is a rescue cat so it actually took him several years before he got to be affectionate. Now he is really needy and wanting some attention all of time (when he is awake). He loves belly rubs and will happily lay on his back on my lap so I can rub his tummy. He is a big boy and I have been trying to put him on a diet for a long time to no avail. Mostly because it is too much work for me. Last month when he was forced to live in a boarding kennel for 3 weeks, I thought it would be a great time to start his diet and instructed the vet and kennel people that he was on a diet and to restrict his intake. This did not happen. In fact, from the look of things, I think they just kept a full bowl of food in his cage at all times. Our tub of love has turned into a tub of lard!
Puff’s (the tabby) has a health risk now. He has already had one incident of a blood clot in his leg and it was a miracle that we were able to save him and he bounced back to health. Now he is overweight by a lot and so I have no choice now but to put him on a diet and enforce it no matter what. We started last night.
The diet hasn’t worked before because I would measure the food and leave it out in the bowls. When he finished his, he would just start on Godiva’s. So now it is measure the food into the bowls, give them each their own bowl and make sure that they only eat from their bowl plus pick up the bowl when they are finished.
They have both been night eaters. Godiva is very fond of eating around 3:30 in the morning and she must have me show her where the bowl is just in case it has magically moved or disappeared since I put it there several hours before. We had it down to a science. I would push her off the bed in the direction of the bowl and she would find it. Then I could fall back asleep quickly. Puff would take note of the action and then just swing by and take a lot of bites and then back on the bed. Now I have to get up, take their bowls out of the drawer (the only place in the hotel room I could find to put them so they couldn’t jump up on the counter and help themselves), put the bowls on the floor and wait for them to eat. As I am not good at falling asleep in a short amount of time, this means by the time they have finished eating, I am wide awake. Today they had me up at 4:51 a.m. and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep.
So the pain of dieting is going to be my pain. It’s going to be the pain of losing a lot of sleep as I re-train two cats (who are 7 ½ years old) that they need to eat during the day, that they need to sleep at night and be quiet, that they will get fed in the morning after the alarm clock rings. I need to get them used to staying with their bowl and leaving the other bowl alone (they always think they other bowl has more interesting food). I think I am in for a lot of pain. First night of the diet meant I had 5 hours of sleep. Both of them are curled up and back asleep although I see Puff is staring at the drawer where the food bowls are. This is not going to be easy. This is going to be painful.
Our brown mackerel Tabby is a tub of love. He is a rescue cat so it actually took him several years before he got to be affectionate. Now he is really needy and wanting some attention all of time (when he is awake). He loves belly rubs and will happily lay on his back on my lap so I can rub his tummy. He is a big boy and I have been trying to put him on a diet for a long time to no avail. Mostly because it is too much work for me. Last month when he was forced to live in a boarding kennel for 3 weeks, I thought it would be a great time to start his diet and instructed the vet and kennel people that he was on a diet and to restrict his intake. This did not happen. In fact, from the look of things, I think they just kept a full bowl of food in his cage at all times. Our tub of love has turned into a tub of lard!
Puff’s (the tabby) has a health risk now. He has already had one incident of a blood clot in his leg and it was a miracle that we were able to save him and he bounced back to health. Now he is overweight by a lot and so I have no choice now but to put him on a diet and enforce it no matter what. We started last night.
The diet hasn’t worked before because I would measure the food and leave it out in the bowls. When he finished his, he would just start on Godiva’s. So now it is measure the food into the bowls, give them each their own bowl and make sure that they only eat from their bowl plus pick up the bowl when they are finished.
They have both been night eaters. Godiva is very fond of eating around 3:30 in the morning and she must have me show her where the bowl is just in case it has magically moved or disappeared since I put it there several hours before. We had it down to a science. I would push her off the bed in the direction of the bowl and she would find it. Then I could fall back asleep quickly. Puff would take note of the action and then just swing by and take a lot of bites and then back on the bed. Now I have to get up, take their bowls out of the drawer (the only place in the hotel room I could find to put them so they couldn’t jump up on the counter and help themselves), put the bowls on the floor and wait for them to eat. As I am not good at falling asleep in a short amount of time, this means by the time they have finished eating, I am wide awake. Today they had me up at 4:51 a.m. and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep.
So the pain of dieting is going to be my pain. It’s going to be the pain of losing a lot of sleep as I re-train two cats (who are 7 ½ years old) that they need to eat during the day, that they need to sleep at night and be quiet, that they will get fed in the morning after the alarm clock rings. I need to get them used to staying with their bowl and leaving the other bowl alone (they always think they other bowl has more interesting food). I think I am in for a lot of pain. First night of the diet meant I had 5 hours of sleep. Both of them are curled up and back asleep although I see Puff is staring at the drawer where the food bowls are. This is not going to be easy. This is going to be painful.
Misson: Feline Rescue
Mission: Feline Rescue
We finally decided that it was ridiculous to keep the cats in the boarding kennel/prison. Or possibly to be more accurate, we were missing them a lot. We drove up to Corolla to do our Segway tour and on the way back, stopped to pick up the cats. According to the "kennel technician", Godiva finally became a bit more friendly and allowed them to touch her when they cleaned her cage and fed her.
When they brought her out in her cage, she saw me and started meowing immediately. We paid the exorbitant fee and got into the car to go back to the house. It was 20 miles from the rental house and since we had snuck the litter box into the house earlier, we left them in the cages just in case.
Back at the house, we threw things over the cages so it wouldn't look like we had cages. My hubby said that it just looked like overnight bags but they do have air holes in them so we didn’t want to take a change. According to the lease I signed, we are not supposed to have the cats in the rental house but dogs are fine. My personal feeling is that a dog does more damage than a cat but not the rental company feeling. Since they had lied to me about allowing cats, I truly didn’t feel bad about having them in the house for a couple of days. In retrospect, I think we could have had them in the house the entire time. I rarely break rules because I almost always get caught when I do.
The cats were incredibly happy to see us. Luckily they have little kitty brains because otherwise they would remember that I was the one that put them into the prison. They spent the entire night purring and sitting on our laps. I am so happy for them to be home.
We finally decided that it was ridiculous to keep the cats in the boarding kennel/prison. Or possibly to be more accurate, we were missing them a lot. We drove up to Corolla to do our Segway tour and on the way back, stopped to pick up the cats. According to the "kennel technician", Godiva finally became a bit more friendly and allowed them to touch her when they cleaned her cage and fed her.
When they brought her out in her cage, she saw me and started meowing immediately. We paid the exorbitant fee and got into the car to go back to the house. It was 20 miles from the rental house and since we had snuck the litter box into the house earlier, we left them in the cages just in case.
Back at the house, we threw things over the cages so it wouldn't look like we had cages. My hubby said that it just looked like overnight bags but they do have air holes in them so we didn’t want to take a change. According to the lease I signed, we are not supposed to have the cats in the rental house but dogs are fine. My personal feeling is that a dog does more damage than a cat but not the rental company feeling. Since they had lied to me about allowing cats, I truly didn’t feel bad about having them in the house for a couple of days. In retrospect, I think we could have had them in the house the entire time. I rarely break rules because I almost always get caught when I do.
The cats were incredibly happy to see us. Luckily they have little kitty brains because otherwise they would remember that I was the one that put them into the prison. They spent the entire night purring and sitting on our laps. I am so happy for them to be home.
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