I became a vegetarian for the first time in 1971, and then it was off and on until 1976, when I left home for college and could control my meals. (and, I thought, my destiny. whatever.) Throughout the years, I'd been happy to acquire a new refrigerator, a new stove, pots and pans.... and know they had never had any meat in them. Naturally, as a cat owner I knew on some level that we've been buying meat all these years; it was just so cleverly camouflaged in little brown pellets, it was easy to pretend it had no relation to an animal. All that has changed. Spunky's thyroid issues led him to avoid food, and we were going nuts trying to tempt him with anything he would possible be interested in tasting. Here he is, looking thinner and thinner.
The vet said, "give him canned food." So we did, perusing the supermarket shelves and coming home laden with various cans of.....beef! Chicken! Tuna! Sardines! And all kinds of luscious-sounding preparations. There have been two major problems with this, besides the obvious *yuck* factor. The first is, Spotty is demanding to eat whatever he eats, and at least once per day she gets some too. (That's her on the left, getting fatter and fatter.)
The second problem has been with Spunky. He didn't actually WANT to eat the stuff, and had to be force-fed at the vet on more than one occasion. Now he is on steroids for a couple of weeks, and he is eating. For now. We don't know whether were just forestalling the inevitable bad time, but for now that's what we are happy to do. And as he starts eating again, I feel less guilty ever time I eat. Here's what we ate tonight: It's Vegan With a Vengeance's Punk Rock Chickpea Sauce on mashed potatoes.
wingraclaire) wrote, 
