Given any opportunity to post a picture of one of my cats and I so will…hehehe…
For once, I have a good experience in talking to random women I met about fat. For once, someone believed me, who is not from the fatosphere, when I mentioned that my “deathfat” cat seems to eat less than all my other cats and she prefers her high protein wet food to dry food any day (and vets keep telling me to take the dry food away from her, cuz she must be guzzling it… idiots…). Yesterday, I played cab driver for a charity event for stray, abandoned and injuried cats. Folks walked almost five miles from one shelter location to the other in support of the cats…. ohhh… and dogs too! While the organization that put this on deals only with cats, the goal is to make Chicago a no-kill city for all animals and organizations that help dogs seem to be involved in some of these events as well.
My first trip was with three women. Since it was a car full of cat lovers, we weren’t shy about our funny cat stories. The ladies were mentioning that they had sibling cats where one was very large and the other was very small… somewhere I jumped in that I have a supposedly very overweight cat that prolly eats less than my teeny, tiny six pound cat. Shockingly, the young woman next to me didn’t hesitate to say that she thought fat was all about genetics and the women in the back seat make noises of agreement. Then, the two ladies in the back started talking about all the walks they do, 5 miles for charity and such. I just loved to hear that. These were women in their middle ages who did not look like Hollywood middle age (for example, Madonna). They looked like normal women. They didn’t look like exercise fiends. At least one of them would be labelled obese, I believe. And yet, these women had no fear of getting out and moving their bodies and having fun. How lovely!
Maybe ya’all meet lots of body-positive and self-loving women out there in your day-to-day live, but I don’t. It is so refreshing to see other people out there who show body-love and zest for life and self-esteem! Some days I wonder if these body-positive women only live in the fat-o-sphere and it is lovely to be proven wrong. 😀
Circling back to my precious Abilene (pictured above), we have discovered that she has skin allergies. In brushing her out, I found patches of scaley skin in the middle of her back and on the upper part of her tail. So, I took her to the vet and we are trying her on anti-biotics first to see if that clears it up. Of course, the vetrinarian mentioned Abi’s weight. I answered back the truth – this cat loves to go for walks and doesn’t overeat/eats very little dry food. The woman paused, laughed at me and said, “well, she’s got to be eating something.” This comment irritated me a lot. This brilliant vet followed that comment up with something about me needing to brush Abi extra, cuz she’s so fat that she prolly has no motivation and/or ability to clean herself. Even animals cannot escape fat hate. 😦
Well, yes, Abi hadn’t been grooming her rump area very well. Do you think that had anything to do with the scales and scabs there? A few days on anti-biotics and magically she is grooming her rump all the time – along with grooming the rest of her that she always groomed well. If vetrinarians (of all people) cannot see fat stereotypes when it comes to a heart-meltingly cute and fuzzy cat, it doesn’t give me hope for a very quick change in the tide in the fat-hate issue in general. It didn’t help that there was this ridiculous chart hanging on the wall that compared your pet’s poundage overweight to your own. According to that chart, Abi’s 16.5 pounds at her build is the cat equivalent of 50 pounds overweight for me. I feel bad for all the pets and petowners who are going to go on some ridiculous diet mission because of this ignorant chart that measures out just how fat (in human terms) your chihuahua, tabby or great dane is. Cuz, ya know… all those fat cats and dogs are prolly hugely contributing to global warming and stuff with their horrific fatness.
And the moral of this story, I think, is that it takes a lot more courage and discipline not to jump on the fat hysteria band-wagon than it is to jump on it, buy some SlimFast and start loathing your natural body functions… and yet, it seems that most people think the exact opposite. This week, I’m going to take extra care to remember that strength it takes to follow HAES and IE and pat myself on the back for it.
–AngryGrayRainbows
booo!!! hisss!!! Down with fat hate!! Your kitty is a beautifully scrumptious lady! I am delighted to hear about your positive experience with the other women!! I too live in an area where Fat Acceptance is unheard of. ((le sigh))
Give your kitty some extra lovins’ and tell her how beautiful she is 🙂
I will def tell her how beautiful she is. 😉 She seems to eat it right up too. She starts making little cat footies and starts making flirty eyes and sometimes she starts rolling around when I compliment her. I suspect she is one of the smartest animals I’ve ever had. I’m sure she doesn’t understand 99% of my words, but I think she does understand the tone of voice and the intention and she just revels in it… as she should. Yay for fat cats!
I have to say, cats are indeed an excellent way to see fatness without any attached emotions. They aren’t beating themselves up for wanting to eat more food or judging each others’ size…it’s the people who project that onto the animals.
Take my roommate, for instance. She’s so terrified of getting fat that she barely eats anything (despite being a marathon runner), and has decided that her cat needs to eat the same way. That has basically turned her cat into a food-fiend because she doesn’t get to eat during the day. And of course since she doesn’t want her cat eating my cat’s food (because it’s not the low-calorie “healthy” crap she gets from the vet), I have to put my cat’s food up during the day, too, though I frequently leave it down to spite her.
When I point out to her that her cat’s always the one throwing up because she ends up eating too fast after having starved for the entire day or having nervous hair-pulling behavior, she doesn’t bother listening. Her cat’s not going to get fat, and that’s that!
I agree with Kat… that bit about your roommate it really sad. I’d be tempted to kidnap that cat. It’s a shame what people put their fur children and their human children through under the banner of “health”.
Hardly eating anything AND being a marathon runner is a dangerous combo too… I hope your roommate wakes up some day soon.
I personally have found being around fat animals and seeing videos/pictures of them has helped my body acceptance so much. Animals don’t usually struggle with body-hate (like you said) and I find them really inspiring.
Grrrr at your vet’s fat hate!!!
I had sister cats from the same litter. One was always very thin and the other fat. The fat one lived to be almost 17.
Crookedfinger, I feel so sorry for your roommate’s cat. That about made me cry.
How synchronicitous that you should be writing about this…I was recently at the vet with my cat and saw a similar chart. ~ whoa! ~ everyone is so concerned about their “fat” pets!
My mom had a large cat that also needed help grooming her rump. If they can’t reach, they just can’t reach….! Anyways they helped her out, they didn’t put her on a diet.
I don’t know why some pets get “fat” and some don’t!! A true mystery!
I’ve never had one get overly-large, as of yet, and so haven’t had to deal with vets about that stuff…if I was worried about the size of my pet, I would
1. check for parasites
2. x-ray for blockages or other weird, swallowed stuff
3. do a blood test? pets do get diabetes and other things
If a cat is walking, playing, romping, rolling, purring, and has an APPETITE, this is a good, healthy cat!!
All cats have an appetite. Let them eat!! When your cat doesn’t eat, it’s time to worry.
It is sad when people ‘project’ their own body/health baggage onto their pets…like hardly feeding them or expecting them to be vegetarian…
I have a cat which some people comment about his weight. We have 3 cats – one has always had what I would call a bottle figure (Luigi), one is very overweight (Indy), and the other is just a large cat (Loki). All 3 are larger than most of the cats people I know have had, but only one is overweight.
Luigi is my oldest and has always been basically average weight, though some people have said she is “fat” just because she is not one of those tiny cats. I never had a tiny cat. All were the standard American Shorthair size, which I think many people don’t realize is bigger than other breeds. I even had my step-dad build a 2 floor cat house with bigger entrances for “real” cats.
Indy, or the “fat one”, as I call sometimes her, actually does eat quite a lot, but as long as she’s being her normally, healthy, cuddly self, I don’t care how overweight she is. She’s like a round teddy bear, extremely strong but lazy, and I never have to worry about crushing her. She probably wouldn’t be much bigger than me if she was a person. She always seems to have a smile when she naps and loves to sleep right be side me. Her sister, Zelda, developed diabetes and died shortly after back on February 28th, 2005, so I keep watch for early signs in Indy. Zelda refused to eat most foods – this will likely not be much of a problem with Indy. Unfortunately, she has had a severe dry skin problem for many years, and I had 3 different vets tell me 3 different thing: fleas (which none of my cats have – I changed vets after that), allergies (medication didn’t exactly help), and the 3rd vet, who I really like, said she was just a little too “round” and probably can’t groom herself properly. He said nothing about losing weight, just that it was likely her problem.
Loki, the one that some people pick on because of his size, is a well-built, muscular, healthy cat. I got him the summer after Zelda died. He was born into a feral cat colony (on my dad’s porch actually), but his mother was trapped, spayed, and release, so all the kittens were bottle fed, creating the friendliest cats I ever met. Loki and Indy basically weigh the same (about 16 or 17 pounds), but Loki is taller and thicker. He is extremely fast and holds the record in our house for catching a fly in less then 30 seconds – right out of the air! I try to explain to people that he was a feral cat, and those particular cats in that colony are rather large. We think they may be descendants from our cat Puff, who was part Scottish Fold, had a strong build, a very thick tail, and ruled the neighborhood. Still some people insist on saying he is fat or overweight just because he isn’t this slim, small cat. He is like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of cats.
I never concern myself much with weight, even for pets. When I see an overweight cat, I always think “he/she must love life and have a nice home”. Most people who comment about people, or pets, who are overweight I feel are too thin. This new slim look I think is disgusting. These people look like they are starving! While only one of my cats is actually overweight, I only care about her health. Garfield is about the same size, and everyone loves him. Cats are supposed to be a little chunky. And in people, curves look better than straight lines.