Appetite stimulant and new toys

My friend Mary wrote:

Just read your Sunday post and had a thought - check the cans for additives/preservatives. Mack didn't "eat" for such a long time that maybe these "extras" have a smell of their own that he only now notices? Just a very wild guess. It's just good to hear that he is eating on his own (and with your cross-town trek, apparently eating very well-traveled cat food : - ).


That's entirely possible, Mary. I do know, after further research, that the Wellness brand uses human-grade food products in its line of pet foods -- which makes it less icky for me to be stirring it up with my *fingers*! Some of that canned pet food is absolutely disgusting, from a purely human mostly-vegetarian point of view!

Last night before bed, since Mack hadn't eaten enough food all day, I popped a half-tablet of appetite stimulant down his throat. He wasn't happy with me, but it was pretty quick with the new pill plunger I picked up at the Cat Doctor on Friday, for just this purpose. It places the pill well past the cat's tongue, so it's less likely to end up getting spit out!

Anyway, between 10 p.m. and 6:30 this morning, Mack ate a whopping 5 2/3 tablespoons of Kitten Chow (compared with 4 1/3 all day yesterday). He *really* wanted his canned food, too -- and gobbled down 2 1/4 oz. before I left for work! That's as much as he ate yesterday, all day!

He was really bouncy and energetic yesterday, though. I bought some new cat toys, and Mack (along with Reggie and Lucky) played with every one of them. The first one, a 2 1/2" glow-in-the-dark white pom pom with metallic blue threads, Mack tossed up in the air (I swear!) about 4', and followed with a leap of his own, about 4" behind it -- but he did a flip instead of catching it, and landed smack on his back on the hardwood floor. Didn't hurt him -- he took off like a demon, and hid under the papasan for a while. Didn't play with THAT toy again.

I coaxed him out, and he wasn't hurt, just shocked and embarrassed, I think. I had to laugh out loud, though!

He's been darting around, in and out of doors as if we can't see him streak by ... just like before he was sick. He's DEFINITELY feeling better.

This morning, though, after gorging on the canned food (which was less than we'd been stuffing into his tummy when we were tube-feeding, so I wasn't worried that he was overeating), he was all relaxed and curled up for a nap at the foot of the bed. Made me smile.

Mack is back.