"Karen AKA Kajikit" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:50:51 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


"Karen AKA Kajikit" wrote in message
. ..
On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:33:38 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


"Karen AKA Kajikit" wrote in message
news Since Scouty apparantly can't reach her own back to wash it (and she
doesn't like to let the other cats do it for her) her fur was in a
rather sad condition back there, and the TED told me I needed to groom
her every night. So we made a new routine - when I go into the bedroom
to watch tv in the evening I pick up the brush and call Scouty and she
comes RUNNING for her lovings... she's always been a very sweet kitty,
even if a big chicken, and she adores being brushed - she's even
willing to come into the same room as the daddy monster if it means
having meowmie brush her fur!

But isn't she quite a young cat? Why can't she reach her back to groom
it?
Has she become disabled in some way?
This is a difficulty I would only expect in an old cat.

Her neck isn't very long and her muzzle isn't very long and she's
HUGELY chunky (remember she's 16 pounds of muscle)...

Ah. Therein lies your problem. She's too chunky to reach her back.


she just plain
can't bend that far. She washes herself plenty and keeps her tummy and
tail and legs and front part gleaming, but she can't reach the middle
of her back (and every time her sissifur washes her, she does her head
and then Scouty says 'enough' and it turns into a wrestling match :P )

Can I be frank without you killfiling me? ah, well I will do it anyway.
She is too fat. She is not 16lbs of muscle at all. She is 6 lbs of fat.
I've decided not to buy into euphemisms any more since just now. Fluffy,
big
built etc. The word is fat. Overfed for the amount of exercise
available.
Now I will await the flack, I don't care really. If cats have to be kept
inside their food has to be controlled to allow their weight not to
spiral.
Sorry, Karen.

Fine... you come over and just TRY to hold her and see just how flabby
she is... even John has trouble restraining her because she's hugely
strong.

Mmm, I don't like messages to start "fine.." it means it's not fine. I
don't think I mentioned the word flabby at all.
The point I am trying to make (not very well, it seems) is that 16lbs seems
to be very heavy for a domestic shorthair. Domestic cats are pretty much
the same all over the world and the only time I knew of them getting to this
sort of weight is when they eat too much against the exercise available to
them.
I understand that it very difficult for most Americans to let their cats out
like most of us in the UK are able to. It keeps our cats trim and they burn
off the calories they eat. Were they not able to go outside their food
would have to be reduced so their weight didn't increase.
I am digging an even bigger hole for myself here, so that's enuff said.
Sometimes I should just shut up.. but then again..

Tweed