The problem is having to keep them indoors. It is impossible for a cat to be 100% healthy if 100% indoors. There’s alot you can do to create a balance but it can never be perfect unless you can recreate the wind in the treesa inside your house, literally. Red loved to chase leaves. When I say loved it I mean he spent hours in the autumn playing with the leaves. He’d bring in leaves like gifts – inside the house. I kept some of his most favourite leaves to remember him. Nature and the outdoors are synonimous with health and well being, even with humans. Imagine never going outside. It’s also very hard to turn a cat down if you have him locked up. I find it hard to not give them anything they specifically ask for. But most of all I think Ruth is right. People have time to watch TV but not to play with their cat. If the cat is locked inside this becomes like a prison sentence. Poor cat must watch the human(s) watching TV and feel so lonely and lost and at a loss as to what to do. It must make them very anxious. Over-eating is clearly a side effect of mental ill health. It’s very sad actually. I have had some heartbreaking moments with peoples indoor cats who crave attention and love yet thier owners dont know what they are meowing for – food? It’s sad. I met one lovely cat called Jerry, my old neighbour in Canada’s cat. I tried hard to get them to adopt a friend for him with not success. Poor Jerry loved me so much when I came over. He would get all excited and my neighbour was all shocked how Jerry was coming out of his shell and being happy and not meowing unhappily. I wish I could have kidnapped Jerry and given him the good life. Ironically he is supposed to have the good life. In his situation I wonder how torturous it must be. Clean fancy minimal apartment too with nothing for Jerry to hide behind. They were a tidy couple which is even worse. I really loved Jerry and I think of him a lot. He is stuck on the 10th floor and probably never even gets much real outside air. Its hard not to wish he’s excape and maybe get run over but at least live and have lived if but only for one day in his life. For me this is a tragedy. They thought he was obsessed with food. They kept saying ‘what’ when he meowed and they had tried giving him all foods possible. I ask after him. Last I heard he was overweight and had a serious health issue needed dealing with. Dont remember what exactly. Sometimes you meet a cat and you wish you had broken every rule in the book to help that cat. Jerry is one of those cats for me. Another was the kitten who was the last to be adopted from Red’s 2 litters. His last playmate his age. She was taken as a gift to a screaming child by his Jetsetter mother. I should have taken that cat away and they would have simply thought she ran away. I even tried to get the address where they took her so I could go grab her if she was outside. No address 🙁 People who think and say they love an animal often do but only in a passive way. IF the animal get sick they jump up and start worrying but until then they don’t give it the attention it needs. I sometimes wonder if these kinds of people are capable of true love. The kind of people who only do something if they get something out of it. They are all around us, in relationships having huge problems with eachother and their poor cats. These people should not have children and yet they are always the ones who do.

Jerry is a tabby boycat who is front declawed from the Toronto inHumane society. The couple didn’t say they had him declawed but I fear they did. They have that kind of apartment and style where clawing furniture might be a big issue for them. I didn’t know about declawing till they told me he was and I reacted in total shock that it was even possible. That’s why I think they then made a point of saying that he was already like that. Maybe he was. Maybe not. He loved my cat Gigi who came and wanted to play with him on the other side of the screen door. Until they moved to the 10th floor of a snazzy condo building in the city centre. I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent, sorry, but he was one of those cats who’s caretakers seem to think he is obsessed with food so it is related actually. It’s amazing how the ‘good life’ can actually really mean something quite different. A cat who is fed and watered and has humans who love him can feel so lost and unhappy and lonely and insecure. Jerry loved me very much. He would cry when I left to go back home and watch me out the door til I was out of sight.

If I could have one perfect xmas present it would be to find out the Jerry has a new buddy and they are running and playing and licking each other and sleeping heavily from being so tired. To know that Jerry is ok, happy, secure and himself.