My parents had this cat growing up named Sweetberry. He was ridiculously spoiled and ate his heart out daily. And he was so big and fat and hairy. My sister was obsessed with him, bless her heart. He sort of looked like this fine feline and he would sit on the couch like this every day.
He put up with a lot in his 18 years of life. Hair balls. Our feeble yet exuberant 'spa' days (once we actually tried to give him a shampoo job with one of our old toothbrushes...our mama took the scissors away before we got to the hair cut portion of his treatment...)
Heck this cat traveled to more countries (we moved a lot because of my Dad's job) than most people do in a life time. I remember my Grandmother flying overseas to visit us-- she normally did once a year-- and we traveled with her to France. Trip of a lifetime. When she got her film developed (this WAS the 90's...) she had three times as many pictures of Sweetberry than of the beautiful French countryside or her precious grandchildren (us!). My mother still laughs about that...
In his final years, Sweetberry grew deaf so my dad realized he could literally vacuum the cat to remove the oodles of hairs Sweetberry left behind when he napped. He would just lounge on the couch and watch my dad tediously 'groom' him. (Ha, redneck groomer!)
When he became really sick, the vet suggested to my parents they give him fluids. I came home to visit one day and I witnessed both of my parents practically laying on the cat who was perched on the clothes dryer, attempting some sort of makeshift vet office in the laundry room...Dad had strung up IV fluids and was trying to shove the catheter needle under the cat's skin...Looking back, I wish I had a picture of it. You hear the saying parents will doing anything for their kids? Well you wouldn't believe what they do for a cat! In Sweetberry's final months my parents probably spent more money keeping him alive than they did on a whole year of undergrad tuition...
Ironically reading this article (click on the cat) prompted me to think of good ol' Sweetberry. I was going to blog about ridiculousness based on feline obesity and how it's all the owners' fault. Heck, Elmo has always been a bit chunky, but I like him that way. I spoon feed him cottage cheese. We go through Braums drive through so he can have his weekly frozen yogurt-- ice cream makes him a tad lactose intolerant. When we laid down at night, we would sleep on each other's faces (too much info?). Apparently that freaked my husband out or Elmo used to stare at him while he slept at night and that was alarming or whatever. So Elmo has a down comforter bed in the garage...
Is your pet obese? Do you take Captain Snowball on car rides? Do they have a preferred television show they watch while you are at work? (Laugh all you want, my MIL literally leaves the tv on certain shows all day for their canine kids!)
Pets are people, my friends! Love them!
xoxo Summer
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