cottage cheese & a snarly cat

["Lyn Nelson" <lnelson@mail.portup.com>]

Hi.....

The cottage cheese was a gander at how much he drinks to counteract the
sodium.  Apparently, sodium is an ingredient that is "dinked" around with in
kibbles because with an increase of content there is an increase in
palatability.  Hmmm - I'm thinking oh yeah potato chips....nice and salty.
I could go for some of those right now....

So, when the vet suggested changing food to see if that has any
significance, I thought wait......cottage cheese is HIGH in sodium and he
didn't know that.  You can tell it's a male vet who doesn't retain water,
eh?  Me on the other hand - I swear a whiff of ham can add a gallon.  I
don't think my vet knows much about the stuff I'm feeding Monza.  I hate to
say this but he even said he's seen pets go from Euk to Iams to Science Diet
to......goodness, he didn't name any stuff that I looked at while searching
for a food.  To be generalistic, I live in an area where Puppy Chow is the
one and only, or wait there's Kibbles & Bits, too.  YIKES!  I was
practically doing backflips when I found a little bit of Wellness stocked at
the local feed store.  I tell them how good it is (in hopes they'll keep
stocking it) every time I'm in there.  Oh - the place is on my way to & from
work; it's a regular stop.  They tell me that they've had nothing but good
comments about it.

Today was introduce Monza to Boots day.  I took the day off & spent the
afternoon at my parents place down the road.  Monza loves it there:
luscious, green grass; new landscaping with hemlock chips; a huge flower
garden; birdies everywhere; and an elevated sprinkler.  Heaven - to him.
However, they have a cat named Boots.  He's a black and white, snarly, 8 or
so year old bruiser.  He's a house and outside prowler who commonly brings
home mice, birds, and even rabbits.  Yes, he has all of his claws and some
mighty nasty teeth.  He took on my friend's 6 year old, 90+ pound Golden
only a couple months ago.  It wasn't pretty and the poor Golden immediately
tried to get away while crying.  The past few times that Monza's been there,
they've been separated by doors with Boots literally GROWLING behind the
door at playful Monza.  So, today Boots watched Monza through the window.
Then I had Boots smell me over and then I let him outside.  The closest we
dared to get the two of them was about 20 feet and that was REMARKABLE.  I'm
hoping that these baby steps with the knarly cat will eventually lead him to
his acceptance of Monza.  On the other hand, Monza's going to have to learn
to be wary of him and not so friendly - ha! like that's really going to
happen.....not friendly?!

Anyone else dealing with an old cat?

Lyn