by Nann

Created on: March 24, 2009   Last Updated: March 26, 2009

Though this true story is not of my cat, it is worth telling. Years back I had a funny conversation with a woman who told me about her obese cat and her very skinny dog. She worked for the airlines and consequently was out of town a lot and had to leave self feeders for her animals. Her cat was a short hair tabby that weighed in at a whopping 50 lbs! Yet her dog, who was a St. Bernard, was very lean for his breed and age.

I shared with her my story of my dog that put away his toys in the backyard when he was done playing and how this one time I found all these plastic butter tubs lined down the fence from a box he had gotten into under the porch! As our conversation progressed, she shared that her cat was also very lethargic and slept on the dog bed, pushing the St. Bernard to sleep on the floor beside the bed. Although her dog was very accommodating by nature, it was not fair for him to be denied the creature comforts of his bed. But when she was home, her dog would eat and seemed to be his happy go lucky self.

So, she decided to watch the behavior of her animals while away from the house on a nanny cam. She also contacted her vet for advice, being told that cats have a natural tendency to be lethargic and her St. Bernard although leaner, was very healthy. She was baffled, but determined to understand what was happening to her animals. She had a flight scheduled to be out of town for 4 days! A perfect opportunity. She set up the nanny cam in the area she had blocked off for her cat and dog and set up the beds, the feeders, waters and lots of toys. What she discovered from this trip was an eye opener, to say the least.

Here is what she told me. She recorded the first day. She watched as her cat sat and ate the food out of the cat feeder. She would proceed over to the dog's feeder and eat until gorged, lay on the bed sprawled on her back and would growl at the dog if he so much as tried to approach his feeder, bed or water! The cat gave the dog permission to eat. The cat gave the dog permission to play with his toys. The cat gave the dog permission to sleep by his bed. The cat would growl and hiss at the dog to intimidate him. So, when she got home, she took the video to her vet and showed him. They watched in total amazement and then her vet turned to her and simply stated his conclusion was her cat thought she was a dog.

Since her animals were raised together at a very young age, the cat had decided to gain the advantage early by becoming the alpha dog since her companion out sized her and out weighed her. Subsequently, the vet suggested separating the animals while out of town and feeding them at different time. It worked. This is one of my favorite all time pet tales, so to speak.

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