THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon
“I’ve been reading about cats,” my husband, Peter, tells me. Peter has by no means had a cat earlier than.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Salt is not good for their kidneys. We have to give Felix unsalted fish.”
Felix is our adopted road cat right here in Mexico. He is coming again to the U.S. with us in a elaborate backpack provider I discovered on-line. It has mesh on both facet, with one large plexiglass bubble within the again, so Felix can watch his fellow passengers in consolation. He hasn’t flown but, however our journeys to and from the veterinarian had been uneventful, so I feel he’ll adapt to it fairly nicely.
Felix is adapting to every little thing fairly nicely, particularly contemplating he isn’t the five-month-old kitten we thought he was, however absolutely two years old. I discovered this on the vet when he acquired his first vaccination.
“I don’t know how old he is,” I advised them, explaining that he was a rescued road cat.
The vet tech was nonchalant. She peeled again Felix’s lips and examined his enamel. “One or two years,” she declared.
“Really?”
“I think so.”
Then a second veterinarian’s assistant got here in. “How old is he?” she requested.
I advised her once more that I didn’t know. (I figured it was good to get a second opinion.) Felix suffered the indignity of getting his lips peeled again a second time in 5 minutes.
“At least two years old,” she stated.
“Two years?” I requested — for clarification. (I’ve misunderstood numbers in Spanish extra usually than I care to confess.)
“Yes,” the vet tech stated with certainty. “He is at least two years old.” They recorded his date of delivery as 2022, and Felix out of the blue went from being a scrappy kitten to a remarkably playful and adaptable grownup cat.
But he’s very skinny, and in contrast to lots of rescued animals, he doesn’t appear to be particularly enthusiastic about meals. The lady who fostered him stated she had dry cat meals available for him on a regular basis, in order that’s what we did as nicely. But Felix was not consuming a lot.
I purchased an overpriced package deal of sentimental rooster cat meals. It smelled terrible. Felix tried it. He was unimpressed. The meals hardened in his bowl, and he was nonetheless not placing on any weight.
“Maybe he’d like a scrambled egg,” Peter steered. “Do cats like eggs?”
I’ve had a number of cats however, so far as I can bear in mind, I had by no means made breakfast for any of them. Peter scrambled up an egg and gave Felix a part of it. Felix cherished the scrambled egg. Then Peter acquired studying up on what else cats like.
“They can have fish, but they should eat all the bones for better nutrition,” Peter knowledgeable me. I believed him. Peter introduced home a can of mackerel. The mackerel was an enormous hit. Peter stored studying.
“It says here that cats like peas. Maybe we could give him some garbanzo beans.”
At this level, Peter was miles forward of me in his research of cat diet. We gave Felix three garbanzo beans. Felix ate them instantly and demanded extra.
Now Peter is on the lookout for canned fish — entire fish — full with bones that we can provide Felix for a bedtime snack. “I can get a case of salt-free canned sardines for a good price!” he introduced. “Do you think Felix would like sardines?”
I checked out Felix mendacity contentedly in his furry mattress. I don’t know practically as a lot about cats as I believed I did. But I’m keen to guess Felix will like sardines very a lot certainly.
Till subsequent time,
Carrie
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