The days I miss

I fed the cats their dinner today. They looked at me, looked at the food, and walked away. Sigh.

I miss the old days. I miss the days when they would cry for their food. I miss the days when I'd put the food in the bowls and they'd gobble it up hungrily. I miss the days when the bowls would pretty much be cleaned out right after I fed them.

I would totally take two fat cats over their current issues - whatever those issues are.

We currently feed them each 1/8 cup of Natural Balance dry kibble food in the mornings. In the evenings, we give them 1/8 cup of the same. We also give them each 1/8 can each of Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul canned food.

Ebony loves the wet food. She gobbles it up then hovers around Lewis. Lewis eats about half and then starts pawing at it as if he's trying to bury it. He actually makes quite the mess, tipping over his dry food and water bowls all at the same time. He won't stop until we manually remove the plate of wet food from him. (He doesn't respond to loud noises or when we call his name, or even if we toss things in his direction.)

I feel like we give them so little food, but they don't finish it. We have never free-fed them, so they shouldn't be used to coming back for it later. We were hoping that the wet food would encourage Lewis to eat more, but it doesn't seem to be working.

We tried getting a new container that was air-tight to keep the food fresh longer. We buy 6 lb bags, so it's not like we buy a really big bag and keep it forever. The guy at the pet shop asked if we lived in manufactured homes or kept the food in a garage, but we don't - we keep it in our apartment living room.

Like I said, I miss the days when feeding them wasn't a hassle. I miss just putting food out and having them eat it. I miss not having to monitor them to make sure Ebony doesn't steal Lewis' food and that Lewis doesn't tip over all his bowls.

Sigh.