Flabby tabbies
Dan Reitz brushes his cat, Marcus, on the porch of his home in Washington.
Jim McNutt/Observer-Reporter Dan Reitz, Executive Director of Washington County Council on Economic Development, is all smiles with his cat Marcus at his home in Washington.
Marcus is one hefty cat, as his owner, Dan Reitz, executive director for Washington County Council on Economic Development, wraps his arms around him.
Sometimes a fat cat isn’t just a money-grubber in a sports car and a tailored suit, hungry for a hostile takeover or thirsting for a tax break.
Sometimes a fat cat is, well, a fat cat.
Like the humans who watch over them, household pets have been getting plumper and plumper in recent years. It’s estimated that half of all the dogs and cats tooling around our abodes are overweight or obese. And, just like their owners, pets are packing on the pounds, thanks to overindulgence and a lack of activity – declawed cats are basically housebound, unable to fend for themselves against other cats or predators beyond their backyards, and dogs, particularly in suburban or urban areas, are hemmed in by local rules and regulations that limit their movement. Time-pressed owners sometimes can’t find space in their schedules to toss balls or sticks for their hounds to chase.
“There are a lot of people who have pets that are overweight,” according to Amy Cink, a veterinarian at Waynesburg Animal Hospital. Sometimes, they’re blissfully unaware that their cat or dog is on the hefty side because they think that it’s just, pardon the pun, the nature of the beast.
Though a corpulent canine or a tubby tabby can be a source of amusement – “Garfield,” anyone? – the results could hardly be classified as a barrel of monkeys. Again, just like human beings, carrying an excess of poundage can be the catalyst for developing life-shortening conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis. Too much nibbling on Purina or Pedigree by a dog or cat can lead to more pricey trips to the veterinarians’ office.
“The heartbreak of this whole issue is not only that lives are being cut short, but these pets are also suffering,” according to Ernie Ward, a North Carolina veterinarian who is the president and founder of the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.
According to the association, certain breeds are particularly vulnerable to packing on the pounds, with 58 percent of Labrador retrievers being classified as overweight or obese, according to survey data released in March, with 62 percent of golden retrievers getting the overweight or obese tag.
To put it in human terms, a 14-pound cat is roughly the equivalent of a man tipping the scales at 237 pounds, while a 12-pound Yorkshire terrier is the same as a female weighing 218 pounds.
Like some of the foods that have thickened our waistlines, pet foods have become more calorically dense in recent years, Ward explained, and this has become particularly critical when it comes to cats, with their weight mostly being determined by what they eat, with activity playing a significantly smaller role. In dogs, it’s a more even split, with 60 percent of weight being determined by diet and 40 percent the result of activity, or lack thereof.
Sometimes pet owners are not aware that their pets’ portion sizes are too large, Cink said. Often with good intentions, owners will fork over portions that would adequately fill the stomach of a human being, but, to a dog or cat, it’s the equivalent of a Thanksgiving dinner scooped out on a daily basis.
And while animals don’t get the lecture on cleaning off their plates when they’re kids, they’re programmed to chow down on whatever is in front of them, regardless of whether they’re full or not.
“Some people say, ‘I just gave him a cup,'” Cink said. “But how big of a cup?”
The flab can be harder to burn off than it can be to put on for pets, just as it is for people. But there have been some success stories. Dan Reitz, executive director for the Washington County Council on Economic Development, ended up inheriting a cat two years ago. The stout feline, named Marcus, has shaved off somewhere around one-third of his weight after Reitz purchased a device that dispenses a measured amount of dry cat food at specific intervals.
“I try to make it as healthy as possible,” Reitz explained.
The newly svelte Marcus “moves around a lot more,” Reitz added. When he was still a porcine critter, “I could hardly get him in the carrier. He was wheezing and lying around.”