Happiness

Sometimes Cracked is stunningly well-written, in their linkwhoring way. Like this article on things you think will make you happy but won't.

My sister and I have instituted a new policy at our parent's apartment. Now, sometimes we institute a policy and we simply cannot get the parents to continue it. (That seems to be the case of the recycling container my sister put by the front door to prevent a buildup of plastic bottles and junk mail. We're now back to the build up of plastic bottles and junk mail.) But our new policy regarding the cats seems to be taking.

"My" cat, Pushkin, has always been a very fastidious eater. He only likes very small quantities of freshly put-out food. And he will (and always has) just walked away if another animal wants his food. Now normally if a cat were so finicky I wouldn't fuss about it. I'd say "what are they gonna do, starve?" But in Pushkin's case the answer might very well be "yes". He'd lost a lot of weight over this last year and not a vet in the world can figure out what's really wrong with him. His appetite though, now, is pretty good. But again, he only likes small amounts of food -- many times a day.

So the policy is that Pushkin can eat whatever he wants whenever he wants. Oftentimes this means we take a bowl of food and lock him in the bathroom with it (away from the other cats.) Still, he only eats a fifth(?) of a small can of cat food at any time. So we have to feed him a whole bunch of times just to give him enough food for one cat. And the reality is that feeding him enough means drastically overfeeding the other two (very fat) cats.

And I don't care. I'd rather Pushkin got enough to eat (even if really all he'd have to do is sit and eat the food as it's offered to him three times a day by my stepmom) and the other cats eat way too much than to have him go hungry. Yes, he actually gets fed upwards of seven times a day with his "special" meals. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous because if he ate more than a couple bites at a time his weight would be fine. Plus, he could easily kick the ass of either of the other cats if they deserved it. And they do. But he just won't.