Cat Power

A recent trip to the vet revealed that my cat was obese, so we put her on a diet. I normally enjoy feeding my cat, it’s a gratifying feeling. But with the diet, there was less food and more whine:

After a couple of weeks of incessant meowing, I realized that I was feeding my cat just to shut her up. I also lost track of how much I was feeding her.

So while I was standing in the kitchen one day, and I had an epiphany: a cat-powered feeder. It wasn’t something I wanted to go out and buy, but something I just had to make it right at that moment. MacGyver would be proud:

Unlike most of my theories, this contraption worked surprisingly well in practice. Well, the mechanism part worked. The new challenge was to get the cat to work the feeder. I tapped at the ball manually to dispense food, I guided her paws to do the same, and also used the laser pointer on the ball. Nothing worked.

So I gave up and eventually went to bed. That’s when I heard the tapping sound, and food dropping. Success!

I haven’t fed my cat manually in more than three days. She works for her food and whines less:

However, this graph only shows my convenience as a result of  less feeding. My cat might actually get fatter now that she has full control of her feeding, thus defeating my original dieting intent. But that’s a matter I shall tend to later.