Hi everyone, it’s Allegra! I’ve been a busy girl! Between helping Mom with the Pettie nominations and keeping my sister in line, I can barely find time for more important things like birdwatching, sunbathing and napping. And as if I didn’t have enough on my paws, I’ve recently added another title to my long list of job descriptions: I’m Mom’s Purrsonal Trainer!
Every day at lunchtime, before Mom goes for her daily walk, she does weird things with these green things that look like giant bones. Mom says they’re called “free weights.” She does this in front of our bedroom mirror for some strange reason I’m sure only humans can explain. She takes them in her hands and waves them around in crazy patterns. She doesn’t look like she’s having a whole lot of fun doing it, though, so I decided to step up and help her. So now when she does her thing, I come up on the bed and rub up against her, and purr for her. Mom says it makes her workout a lot more fun.
She also said I should remind all of you how important exercise is not just for humans, but also for us kitties. I’m proud of my slim and trim figure, but I know there are a lot of kitties out there who are too big, and that’s really bad for their health. Sometimes, it’s because their humans feed them too much, or because they feed them the wrong things. My mom is really smart and knows lots about what to feed cats, so you should read her articles about feline nutrition if you need help.
But even if humans feed you the right food in the right amounts, cats should still exercise. It will help keep kitties at the right weight, and it will keep them from getting sick, because extra weight apparently causes a whole bunch of awful diseases. And besides, exercising is just plain fun for us!
Unlike humans, we don’t need to wave around weird-looking bones to get our exercise. We can play with our toys, run up and down cat trees, chase our siblings around the house, and, my favorite way to exercise, play with our humans! I love it when Mom gets out what she calls our “interactive toys!” They all have long sticks, and at the end of the stick is something that is simply irresistible to me and Ruby. We paw at it, chase it around, and jump to catch it.
My favorite right now is the DaBird Sparkly – it’s sooo fun! I also like the Neko Flies Kittycatterfly and the Go Cat Mouse. But the best part about playing with all of them is that I get to play with Mom, too.
Are you helping your humans exercise? And are your humans exercising you?
Allegra, I sure wish your Mom lived near my Mom….maybe if she did, she could motivate my Mom to FINALLY get her butt moving like she used to! love, Cody
How fun would that be, Caren! We could walk together every day!
Very important post! My mom’s cat is obese- although he has lost a lot of weight just recently but not in a healthy way. He was always a stocky boy but as he passed 10 years old he started putting on pounds despite her attempts to keep him active. He began having difficulty breathing one night and long diagnosis short- he had developed diabetes with many other complications. It’s been almost 6 weeks and $3000 later, but I am very happy to report he’s adjusting well, we’ve dialed in his insulin and the other issues went away with loosing weight. He’s even more active, I believe the onset of all of this made him feel terrible for a long time before we noticed his symptoms. I’m making sure I share this everywhere and I want to plead with anyone in denial that their ‘cute fat cat’ is in danger. Thank you again.
I’m glad your mom’s cat is doing better, Raine. I cringe every time I see one of those “fat cats are funny” memes – obesity is no joke, as your story illustrates.
My kitties love those Neko flies and DaBird. We try to play with them before bedtime and I have one that loves to play early morning right after breakfast. The others are more busy looking out the windows.
Neko Flies and DaBird are favorites at our house, too.
Great article Ingrid! I’ve been exercising the “kids”, now three and half years old, ever since we adopted them at 2.5 months. They are brother and sister, half Abyssinian and high energy! If I don’t exercise them every night for at least 45 mins, they take out their dominance issues with each other, so I wear them out! Also, by exercising them at night, I alter their nocturnal pattern, so they are not running around at 2 am disturbing the downstairs neighbor. They are down for the night, until, of course, I get the 5 am universal wake up call, “Feed us!!” Due to the heat, however, and since we don’t have air conditioning, in the summer we do mostly low impact workouts-instead of the kitties running and bouncing off the walls (with the laser toy and Cat Dancer, their faves), low impact is mostly kitties laying down and using their upper bodies to bat at stringy toys.
Exercise is an evening ritual for us, part of the kitties routine (and we know how much cats love routines, lol), that if I’m late with our workout they circle me like sharks, with an affectionate rub or two-they so look forward to play and exercise time!!
I love your exercise regime, Lisa! Exercising before bedtime is such a great way to help kitties release energy and preserve the humans’ precious sleep. Your low-impact summer routine is great. This type of low impact exercise can also be a great way to get older cats to engage in play.
I don’t like when my human uses those weight things – they look dangerous! Like, what if she dropped them or something? So I only help her with yoga. We kitties are very lucky, not needing a bunch of equipment other than cat toys to stay in shape! Those weights humans use certainly don’t look toy-like.
Believe me, Sparkle, I sometimes worry about dropping one of those weights – and I’m sure Allegra does, too. Maybe that’s why she keeps such a close eye on me when I work out?