"Love sustains any of us more than food ever will."
These are words of wisdom, Susan...so very true. You take wonderful care of your furry friends. elizabeth On 3/24/07, Susan Hoffman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My personal cats average around 18 years (including one who was FIV+). The canned food of choice is Friskies. I buy it at Walmart or on sale at the grocery store. I tried upgrading their dry food to something corn-free but, after I caught them digging through the crunchy bowls to get at the cheap stuff on the bottom, I relented and picked up a bag of Meow Mix. They get liberal servings of people food and, again, I shop sales. The fosters all get the same as my own cats. 18 is a pretty good life for a cat. The diet doesn't seem to be hurting them a bit. They all get lots of love and have the run of the place, lots of freedom, soft beds, clean litterboxes, toys and cat trees and each other for company. I think that's why they live long lives -- life is good, why leave? Diet only goes so far. Love sustains any of us more than food ever will. *catatonya <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* wrote: Beth, Please don't take one person's word as the opinion of the list. We do what we can. And I applaud you for your rescue work. I have had friends whose cats lived much longer, healthier lives than my own have who ate supermarket generic brands. I am sure you do the best you can for your cats, and please try not to be offended by the entire list based on one person's patronizing attitude. tonya *Gussies mom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* wrote: This is ridiculous. I come to this list because I have a sick baby that I love very much. A cat that is not even "mine", though I wouldn't give him up for the world. I'm looking for help and support. Now I'm being told I feed my cats CRAP because I feed Science Diet because that is what the shelter gives me. Now I'm being told I should give up my cats to someone who can feed them better. My cats are all from the streets. They are problem cats that nobody else wanted. Who would you suggest take them? I do rescue. There are thousands of people trying to give up their animals. Should the shelter I work with, that took in 700 animals last year, not take in unwanted animals or pull them from death row because, after all, we will be feeding them Science Diet CRAP? Should we not have taken in the cats with the broken legs, the one that needed heart surgery, the one that was lit on fire, the ones who's teeth are bad and have to be pulled, the ones who were kept in chicken coops their whole lives, the ones who are so neglected they are afraid of human touch, the ones who were sent by their wonderful owners to live out their last days awaitng the gas chamber because they grew old or became to much work; because we would have to feed them Science Diet? I guess we should have told them we couldn't spend all that money on medical care for them because we needed to feed them more expensive food. I'm sure they would have understood. Perhaps we should have left Stamp crying in the bushes at the Post Office. I'm sure someone in that run down neighborhood would have come along and given him a much better home with better food. I'm sure there were people just lined up! My cats are taken care of. They go to the vet when they are sick. They are loved. That's probably more than most cats in this world have. I buy my clothes at thrift shops - yes, you can find nice things there. I just sold an 11 year old car with 200,000 miles and bought a care with 91,000 miles. I struggle to pay $425 per month for health insurance with a 2,500 deductible. I don't go out to eat a lot. I ususally eat yogurt for dinner. I struggle to fund a 401K every month so I will have money in my old age. . The last vacation I took (first in about 10 years) was driving a paid for rental car (someone had hit my car, so I got a free rental) to Florida to stay for free with a friend who lives by the beach. We all struggle to make choices. I believe in personal responsibility. If have to take care of myself. Yes, that comes first. Because if I cannot do that, then I surely cannot take care of another living thing. ** *Beth* ** *"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>* wrote: I'm of the very controversial opinion that no matter how many cats you have, there's no excuse to feed BAD food. If you can't afford to feed decent food, then you can't afford to have that many cats. Get less cats, not less expensive food. There isn't any excuse for anyone to ever feed a food that doesn't have meat as the first ingredient... if you can't afford to feed a meat-based diet, then you need to give up your cats to someone that can afford to take proper care of them. That being said... Healthwise is the "cheap" food I feed to my feral cats here. I would not consider anything cheaper than that (it does have corn, but it's pretty far down the ingredient list). My ferals are OBESE creatures, mind you - something you generally don't see, LOL! They live the life of luxury though, and lay around and sleep all day and night (except for food time). Here's the link to the website for Healthwise, and Natura (the company that makes it) is very good at getting it to most areas: http://naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phaewryn http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html Special Needs Cat Resources ------------------------------ TV dinner still cooling? Check out "Tonight's Picks"<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=49979/*http://tv.yahoo.com/>on Yahoo! TV.
