Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Cat Food

I just saw a magazine ad for IAMS “Healthy Naturals” cat food and it’s annoyed me enough that I’m finally going to blog on this subject. The ad boasts that the cat food is “enriched with multigrains” and even features a small photo of a pile of grains along side meat, vegetables, and fruits.

Sounds healthy, right?

Wrong.

Humans need grains to be healthy — but not cats. Cats are obligate carnivores. That means they MUST obtain their nutrition from meat only and that their bodies are not equipped with the digestive enzymes necessary for gaining nutrition from grains, fruits, or vegetables.

IAMS and most other cat food companies appeal to human sensibilities about what constitutes a healthy diet. People buy this stuff, feed it to their cats, and most never realize the harm they may be doing.

Ironically, a couple pages later in the same magazine there’s an ad for Dreamfields low carbohydrate pasta. Their catchphrase is “Raise your expectations, not your blood sugar.” Just stop for a moment and think about it, folks. If the high blood sugar that can result from a high carb diet is bad for humans, who evolved with digestive enzymes for managing grains, how bad must it be for cats who evolved to eat only meat?

Really bad.

So why do these cat food manufacturers load their foods with grains? Because it’s a cheap filler, that’s why, and because the health problems that result from a high carb diet take years to fully develop and most pet owners will never put it together in their minds that THE FOOD was a big contributing factor in their cat’s diabetes or kidney failure. Cat food with grains is much cheaper (to manufacture and to buy) than high quality food. A lot of people can’t afford to spend a lot of money on cat food — or, even if they could afford it, they don’t think it’s worth spending that much on their cats. Believe me. I do understand that. There are alternatives, though. Be sure you check out the web site I mention at the end of this post for some suggestions on relatively cheap ways of getting your cat on a healthy diet.

Anyway, let me tell you how the right food changed things for Mickey.

Mickey was diagnosed with diabetes about 5 years ago. For most of that time, she was getting insulin injections twice a day and, when I could get her to eat it, was getting a special prescription diet for diabetic cats (which, astonishingly, has grains and cellulose in it!). She was getting by, but she definitely wasn’t what you’d call a healthy cat.

I did a LOT of reading and decided to switch Mickey over to a diet of canned Wellness brand food. I chose Wellness because it has NO grains in it and it’s primarily made with “human quality” meats. (No! I don’t mean the meat comes from people! I mean it’s chicken or turkey that could legally have been sold as people food.) The food is nutritionally complete.

Well, guess what?

Within two months, I was able to wean Mickey entirely off insulin. It’s been 9 months and she continues to have normal blood sugar levels. She’s healthier than she’s been in a long LONG time. Her fur is softer and glossier and she’s lost some weight. (She was overweight before.)

This is only one anecdote, of course, but there’s been significant research showing that eliminating grains from a cat’s diet and feeding them only good quality canned food is significantly healthier for them than a diet of dry food from the supermarket.

As you might imagine, our new kittens are getting ONLY Wellness food. Of course, they’re thriving. The real proof will be when they’re 15 or 16 years old, though. I expect them to still be very healthy.

This is a topic that won’t interest everyone but, if you’re still with me and you care about your cat’s health, I encourage you to read this very interesting article by Lisa Pierson, DVM. I found it tremendously helpful. Peruse the entire web site. It’s about a lot more than just feline diabetes.

Solo’s Story — From The People Who Knew Her Best

The Wildlife Research Institute – 2008 January – Solo and Cubs Relocated

Solo was not a bear we were able to spend much time with. She seldom visited the field station, and she spent so much time on private property that we were able to walk with her only twice. People who fed her elsewhere in her territory were usually the ones to put radio-collars on her. However, Solo’s missing ear made it easy for her to remove the collars, so she was without a radio-collar much of the time, limiting our radio-tracking opportunities. We considered it a special occasion when she stopped by the field station.

If you’ve read my past posts about Solo, the black bear who, with her two cubs was forcibly moved by the Minnesota DNR to confinement in Michigan, you’ll recall that Solo was a special bear for me too. She and her sister were the first bears we met when Mark and I attended “bear camp” a few years ago. She was a sweetheart even then.If you care about bears — or wild animals in general — I encourage you to read this account of what happened to Solo. It’s written by the folks at the Wildlife Research Institute who had been studying Solo and her cubs.

Sunset On The UP

I haven’t shown you any pictures from Dana’s resort in Autrain for quite a while.  It’s as beautiful as ever.

I’ve never been there, but it looks like a place worth spending some time.

DanaCam, Dana’s Lakeside Resort, Autrain, Michigan

Two Harbors, Minnesota

I’ve just installed this lovely plugin, Lightbox, on my WordPress blogging software and I figured I’d (re-)share some of my photos from Two Harbors, Minnesota as a way of testing it out. These are from a vacation we took a couple years ago. Two Harbors is on Lake Superior, if you didn’t know. Anway, click on a thumbnail picture to see it bigger.

D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Fenty Seeks To Inspire, But Instead Infuriates – washingtonpost.com As Fenty (D) began an address that his aides said was aimed at motivating 200 District social workers Wednesday after having fired six of their colleagues, he heard a hissing sound. Who was that? Fenty demanded, to no avail. Collecting himself, he continued his remarks, challenging the employees to lift their performance, only to be interrupted again, this time by a woman who complained loudly that she felt disrespected by the mayor.

Bah! I’m so tired of people whining about being “disrespected” — especially people, like this woman who interrupted Mayor Fenty, who don’t deserve respect to begin with.

Free clue, whiners: rudeness doesn’t deserve respect. Neither does incompetence and, sad to say, there appears to be a LOT of incompetence in the DC’s social services. And laziness. Did I mention the laziness?

One of the things that makes this whole “disrespect” accusation so annoying is that lots of well-meaning people, when of accused of it, feel like they’ve got to assure the accuser that, oh yes, they DO respect them, really they do.

Sigh.

Just once, I’d like to hear Mayor Fenty say, “You’re absolutely right that I’m disrespecting you. I’m disrespecting you because you don’t deserve respect. You’re lazy and incompetent and a drain on this city’s economy and, if not for the fact that you belong to a strong union that apparently has NO standards for professionalism, I’d kick your useless ass to the curb faster than you can sing that famous Aretha Franklin song.”

Steve, Modified

Gimme

I so want this. And I deserve it, too. Don’t I?

Why, oh why, have I not been given unlimited piles of money with which to buy this? And, of course, a new BIG Mac desktop machine to act as an optical drive server and back-up host?

My personal minions have really been falling down on the job. This machine should already be parked in an adorable tote bag hanging from the hook down by my front door — just waiting for me to head out with it to Panera for a sandwich and a hot chocolate in front of the fireplace.

Why isn’t it there, damn it!

Heads will roll. I’m telling you right now, people. Heads will roll.

In the meanwhile, Paul Boutin over at slate.com makes a valid point — and, in fact, it’s one of the first things I thought of.

“After using my iPhone for a few months, it started feeling weird that my PowerBook doesn’t have ubiquitous wireless networking,” respected Apple-watcher Jon Gruber blogged Monday. “It just feels crippled.” Gruber said he’d pay a premium for such a feature to be included in a laptop. So would a lot of other people.

If the MacBook Air had the same kind of wireless networking capability as an iPhone, a lot of us who don’t particularly care whether we can actually speak to other people would be carrying around the Air instead of the iPhone. I’d be one of them. Which would be hugely disappointing to my husband who just bought me an iPhone for Christmas.

Here’s my message to Steve Jobs. Take everything the iPhone can do — except for the actual PHONE part of it — and put all that into the MacBook Air. Including all of the really cool touch screen stuff — but on the track pad, not on the actual display. Do that, Steve, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Well, maybe not literally, but a lot of us will become even more slavishly devoted to Apple than were before.

Snowy Day in Fairfax

This is the scene right outside my front door. Lucky for me, I’m one of those very strange people who actually enjoy shoveling snow! I’m going out every couple of hours, just to be sure it doesn’t get too far ahead of me.

Stella

Steve