I stood on the scale and wrote down my weight. Eighty pounds. I ran into my bedroom and grabbed Snickers off of my bed. She meowed at me tiredly. I sighed as I struggled to hold the heavy, brown cat and walk back to the weight scale. I stood on the scale as Snickers squirmed in my arms. I was now one hundred pounds.
"Wow! Snickers, you weigh twenty pounds!" I said as I placed her onto the ground. I had received her for my fifth birthday five years ago. Snickers was given to me as a three-month-old kitten and I had worked hard to take great care of her, with the help of my mom of course. Now I take care of her all on my own, well almost all on my own. I get a tiny allowance so I use that to buy her food and toys and stuff. Mom and dad buy the litter for me, but I clean out the litter box.
"Snickers, it's tome for you to lose some weight!" I picked the cat back up and slowly carried her to my dad's workout room. I set her on the treadmill where she just sat down lazily again. I turned it on it's lowest speed setting and watched as she slowly rode backward.
Boom.
Snickers fell off the treadmill and just laid on the floor.
"Ugh!" I grabbed a remote control mouse and tried to get Snickers to chase it. She didn't.
The same thing happened with the laser light.
I ran upstairs, it was time to consult Mom.
"Hey, Mom?" I said as I walked into the living room where she was reading a cookbook.
"Should I make chocolate chip cookies or sugar?" She asked me.
"Chocolate chip."
"Okay."
"Um, I was wondering if we could take Snickers to the vet."
"Is she sick?" Mom put her book down and watched Snickers slowly walk across the floor. She was traveling and 0.1 mph.
"No, but she's eight pounds overweight and I can't get her to play or anything. In the past when I tried giving her less food she just ate it all up and sat on me till I finally pushed her off and gave her more food."
"And how did she get so fat, Elizabeth?"
I looked at my feet. "I gave her too much food when it became my responsibility alone."
"Well, it's a good thing that you realize that. I will pay for half of the vet fee and we can go later today if you want."
"Yes, please! Thank you so much! I really want to get Snickers healthy again!" I gave my mom a big hug and then ran to get Snickers's to go cage thing.
After we shoved the cat into her cage, we set it in the seat next to me in the car. I petted Snickers through the metal barred door and she just slept. When we arrived at the vet, my mom had to take Snickers inside because my arms were getting tired of lugging her around. I was quite the weakling, and Snickers was very fat.
"Wow. Do I see the issue here already?" The vet joked when we walked in. He opened up the cage and had to pull Snickers out.
"This is Snickers. She is five years old and she weighs twenty pounds. She's really really really lazy and I can't get her to diet or play or anything!" I informed the vet.
"Ah. I know of a special brand of food that helps cats not gain weight from it. I also might know of a couple ways to get Snickers to play. Is food a magnet to her?"
"Yeah."
The vet picked up Snickers and said, "Follow me, I have an idea."
We followed the vet into another room that had a small treadmill made for animals.
He sat Snickers down on the treadmill and locked the gate around it. It was made so that the animal couldn't fall or get out
He grabbed a plastic bag that had holes in it and filled it with a special diet brand of cat food. The holes were small enough that the food didn't fall out, but big enough for the cat to smell the food. He tied the bag to a string in the front part of the treadmill and turned the machine on. It wasn't slow enough that the cat could walk to the food but wasn't fast enough that she had to run. Snickers looked at the bag of food and started going for it. After ten minutes and Snickers started panting [yes, cats pant. I had a cat that panted in the past] he turned the machine off and let Snickers have the food.
The vet fee was very small and so after we paid it we went home. After a week we had gotten Snickers to eat the new food brand and to use our treadmill. After a month of her using it for ten minutes a day and eating the diet food, Snickers was down to fifteen pounds. The vet said that healthy for her size of cat is ten to twelve pounds. After only two weeks more we got Snickers down to twelve pounds.
We were then able to change her back to a healthy cat food that kept her at a healthy weight. Snickers also began to play a lot.
Elizabeth took great care of Snickers and kept her healthy for the rest of Snickers's long life of seventeen years.
