Willow Got Fat (Sort Of!)

November is the time of year that we take Willow in for her annual checkup and vaccinations. I am very lucky because at the Cat centre I work at they offer this service to staff for free.

As always, I get a bit nervous taking Willow into the vet. She is nearly 12 years old now and I worry that they might find a problem. Fortunately, the outcome from her checkup is that she is in great health – except for one thing.

She’s a little bit overweight (the vets words, not mine!)

Anyhow, no biggie, she needs to lose a few hundred grams. This means that we have been weighing her food and have been a bit more active in play with her to get her moving.

But we also have some other tricks.

Willow isn’t too much of a greedy guts, but she does ask for more food at night, and we more often than not give it to her.

So, we have this cactus biscuit puzzle which Willow has become quite adept at using, and also something of Steph’s creation. She used a box from a mini rum sampler to make a slow feeder and it works well. Half of Willow’s food will go in her bowl and the other half in these two puzzles.

Willow is handling her (slightly) reduced rations well, and it won’t be long before she’s at her optimum weight.

Anyhow, onto more exciting matters!

We haven’t had a great start to summer but we had one nice 24c day on the weekend, so we put Willow in the van and headed to the beach.

While Willow took a nap, Steph and I paddled out to an island and had a little picnic of sandwiches and cups of tea on my hiking stove.

It was really nice to get a taste of the times ahead; when the three of us are back in the van full time and exploring the mainland.

Well, those times aren’t far away. I’ve got just 3 more weeks left at work, then in a few months we will be getting on the ferry from Tasmania to Victoria in anticipation of more adventures to come.

After our paddle and a swim, we rejoined Willow for the afternoon.

For dinner, Steph and I tried out a local pizza place which some friends recommended. Although Willow was very interested in our pizza, it wasn’t on her menu, despite her disappointment!