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Our next-door neighbour has a beautiful white male Persian cat, Snowball. Last week, he (the owner, a widower) was taken into hospital in an emergency, but not before he had given us his keys and asked - no, ordered - us to look after his cat.
The poor cat is strictly an enormous indoor beast, never having the pleasure of chasing a bird or lizard, never even seeing real daylight as the windows are all permanently shuttered with a tiny amount of light coming through the louvres. We have to switch the light on, even at midday.
We were not given any instructions, at first, because of his emergency. We go in that evening and find a double feeding dish and a double water dish on the kitchen floor. Fair enough. There were a few kibbles in both the feeding dishes, so we hunt around and find an enormous 20 kg bag of kibbles, specially formulated for Persian cats. Nothing else, no containers or cans of meat or fish. So we put some kibbles out for him.
I then washed out the water dishes and filled them with water from the tap.
Having done that, we switched off the aircons throughout the house, which we presumed he had left on by accident in his hurry. In doing so, we found a feeding and water dish in the guy's bedroom, next to the cat's basket and another one in the dining room. So the beast has 4 feeding dishes and 4 water dishes throughout the house. We ignored those, as he had fresh kibbles and water in the kitchen.
The following morning, after having fed and watered the purring machine again when we received a phone call from his master, horizontal in a hospital bed, wired up for goodness knows what. Instructions:
1) fill all 4 feeding dishes with kibbles, no, he doesn't eat meat, only the special Persian cat kibbles at €6/kg - these are all he needs
2) fill all the water dishes from the bottle beside the kitchen sink, he does not drink tap water
3) switch on the aircons in the bedroom, living room and kitchen until the evening, as the cat must not get too hot (the house is reasonably cool, anyway, with all the windows shuttered); three bloody aircons running for 10 hours/day for a damned feline
What kind of life does that animal have? Over-pampering is just as cruel as neglect, IMHO.
The poor cat is strictly an enormous indoor beast, never having the pleasure of chasing a bird or lizard, never even seeing real daylight as the windows are all permanently shuttered with a tiny amount of light coming through the louvres. We have to switch the light on, even at midday.
We were not given any instructions, at first, because of his emergency. We go in that evening and find a double feeding dish and a double water dish on the kitchen floor. Fair enough. There were a few kibbles in both the feeding dishes, so we hunt around and find an enormous 20 kg bag of kibbles, specially formulated for Persian cats. Nothing else, no containers or cans of meat or fish. So we put some kibbles out for him.
I then washed out the water dishes and filled them with water from the tap.
Having done that, we switched off the aircons throughout the house, which we presumed he had left on by accident in his hurry. In doing so, we found a feeding and water dish in the guy's bedroom, next to the cat's basket and another one in the dining room. So the beast has 4 feeding dishes and 4 water dishes throughout the house. We ignored those, as he had fresh kibbles and water in the kitchen.
The following morning, after having fed and watered the purring machine again when we received a phone call from his master, horizontal in a hospital bed, wired up for goodness knows what. Instructions:
1) fill all 4 feeding dishes with kibbles, no, he doesn't eat meat, only the special Persian cat kibbles at €6/kg - these are all he needs
2) fill all the water dishes from the bottle beside the kitchen sink, he does not drink tap water
3) switch on the aircons in the bedroom, living room and kitchen until the evening, as the cat must not get too hot (the house is reasonably cool, anyway, with all the windows shuttered); three bloody aircons running for 10 hours/day for a damned feline
What kind of life does that animal have? Over-pampering is just as cruel as neglect, IMHO.
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