Belly songs

 Tonight I have two very unhappy housemates.  Both Susie and Hannah are overweight.  I do not feed many treats and never give either of them "people" food.  The main problem is lack of exercise.  That problem pertains to me also.  I have been adding the pounds, apparent in the fit (or rather non-fit) of my clothes.  Hannah's arthritis and her old leg injury bother her during the humid weather and the rainy cooler weather which we are presently experiencing.  So we have not been going for our "walks".  (She walks, I ride).  

Susie is just plain lazy.  Once in a while she goes on a wheeze, tearing around through the tiny apartment, up and over chairs and the bed.  Good kitty--she never gets on the table or counter tops or dresser.  Those wheezes are too far apart to be in any way considered exercise. When I try to play with her, swinging a toy mouse or feather on a string, she lies on her back, one paw taking a listless swipe at the dangler as it passes over her belly.  Get up and chase?  You have to be kidding!  I have seen too many cats become diabetic.  Susie just turned 8.  Time to think seriously about some weight loss.

 Hannah's recent problem is perhaps more one of old age.  I normally feed her both morning and evening--a quality senior dry kibble.  (She is 13.)  She gets 2 medium Milk Bones at bedtime.  On evenings when I have company (not very often) I give her a small non-rawhide chew stick.  Nutri-chomps by Scott Pet .  My Vet told me that Hannah was becoming too heavy.  Her leg issues would be less if they had less dog body to carry around.  Of course I knew that, yet sometimes we have to be told by an authority figure to acknowledge the fact.

So this morning Hannah got her regular amount of kibble which rapidly disappeared, followed by a big drink of cool water. Susie looked at the small amount of Indoor Cat  crunchies I poured into her bowl and peered up at me.  "Keep going--meoww".  I did not,  so she lowered her whiskers to the dish and ate, leaving a teaspoon of bits as she always does.  Later she found me at the computer.  Standing on her hind legs and performing "pretty", she pleaded with me to attend to her empty bowl.  I checked and she had even eaten the tidbits.  Her bowl was completely ---empty.  And it has stayed that way all day.  She does get a few treats each time I open the front (and only HAH) door.  Now rather than 5-6 treats, I only toss 2 into the bedroom where she goes for safe-keeping.  And those treat are no longer high calorie tender bites, they are pieces of her regular food. She has not seemed to catch on to that deception yet- still runs to the bedroom when I tell her "dog has to go out".  But she is hungry.  So tonight I will put half her usual amount of her own crunchies in her bowl.  I fully expect to be roused from sleep during the night by a soft paw tapping my cheek and the yowl of a mistreated feline.

This evening at 5pm, Hannah stood by her bowl gazing expectantly as I put my own dinner on to heat.  I put 1/2 her usual kibble in her dish.  She inhaled it.  She has been following me everywhere since. Not begging at the table when I ate though,  I absolutely do not allow that.  She did check beneath the table when I finished, in hopes I might have dropped a bite.  My plan for her is to eliminate the night feeding altogether and give her a bit more than her usual in the morning.  She will still get her bedtime 2 medium milk bone biscuits.

I have the feeling that while Hannah will not be happy with this new regime, she will accept it far more graciously than her feline companion.

So now I am hoping I have begun a healthy plan for my four-legged housemates.  What about me?  I was never overweight when I lived up North.  Stayed pretty svelte the first few years in the South; however falling hard for sweet tea and fried foods.  (All except for fried Twinkies.  That is beyond even me.)  I hiked the fields every morning with my Border Collie, Daisy.  I taught canine agility every Saturday morning.  I stayed active on my 3 1/2 acres surrounded by fields and woods which were not mine to pay taxes on, but mine to enjoy never the less.  Then came the accident, which was  a simple fractured leg-a fracture that the surgeon told me would be repaired with a "nail" and I could be back to running the dogs in a couple of weeks.  It did not turn out that way.  The surgeon had a bad night. And the Dr. who attempted the following day to repair the damage done, could not make things right.  So here I am, in the wheelchair 8 years later.  Here I am using that as an excuse for the weight gain. Sometimes I think it does not matter if I gain weight.  I have lived a long time. (86 in October) I am never going to be able to ride horses or run dogs again, so what does it matter?  Then I admire the pretty dresses my sister sends me.  I put one on.  I feel sorry for the lovely dress.  So I think I will sincerely try to join Hannah and Susie  in their reduced rations plan.  Orange juice, coffee, ONE piece of whole grain toast with much less butter.  I will put a serving on my supper plate, then remove half of it before I sit down to eat.  No snack before bedtime.  I do not own a scale.  Could not stand on it if I did.  So I will check the bellies of my cat and dog when they roll over in front of me wanting those chubby bellies rubbed.  I will take note and smile if one morning I put on that pretty dress and it does not cling like a wet tee shirt.

There will be the sounds of three tummies grumbling for the next few weeks.