The Best Deal Apollo Ever Had

My husband and I like to travel. The problem (aside from our limited checkbooks) is what to do with our beloved kitties while we are gone. Usually, my Mom will stop by and feed them every couple of days. The last time, my brother stayed at the house, because we can't leave food out for the cats to eat at their leisure because the kitten, Emma, will eat every morsel long before the other two even realized we're gone. With my brother there, feeding times remained controlled.

This time, we have the added wrinkle of Molly's daily medicine. My least friendly cat, Molly is the cat none of my family or friends could identify if their lives depended on it. She doesn't enjoy company, is not a fan of being touched, and hates having things stuffed down her throat. This is a recipe for disaster when it's me and hubby trying to medicate her. No way I could put that on my family. As a friend once said about the situation, "it's like putting socks on a rooster." Yep, it kind of is...

So, we solved this problem by boarding Molly at the veterinarian's office so they could deal with medicating her. As she's not terribly social, this seems like a reasonable solution for her since she doesn't much care for Apollo or Emma in the first place.

To solve Emma's overeating problem, we purchased a $70 automatic feeder. We pre-program the feeding times and quantity of food and it supposedly releases only that amount of food, only on those preselected times. I'm writing this from vacation and the brand name escapes me, but let me tell you, it won't outsmart even the average intelligent cat. No lie, it took Emma all of 10 minutes to figure out she needed to reach up inside the machine from the bowl to where the food is released. From there, it took maybe another hour for her to figure out that if she bumped the machine hard enough, she could get it to release food whenever she wanted. Cat smarts notwithstanding, the machine itself has some very obvious flaws. It releases varying quantities of food -- usually more than you requested, but sometimes far less. It will also release food at random times NOT selected on your pre-programmed feeding program.

In any event, we solved this problem by sequestering Emma in two rooms of the house with only enough food in the feeder to get her through until Mom visits to check on her.

This all means Apollo has the run of the house with no picking from the kitten or crabbing from Molly.  He doesn't get randomly attacked or hissed at. He gets the best napping spots on the sofa, and he gets food in the kitchen to eat when every he pleases. Aside from missing a lap to sit on, Apollo is living a little bit of kitty heaven.