A few positive goals, some unintended, have been achieved by putting the cats on a diet.

Ronin again wants to play fetch for a half hour at a time rather than watching the toy sail across the room, slowly ambling over to it, and laying down to take a nap on top of it. In fact, yesterday he followed me around all day with his toy and wanted to play all day long, just like he used to before I let him get too chubby.

Though I haven’t weighed him yet, Ronin appears to have already lost some belly fat. His belly now feels soft rather than feeling like too much sausage stuffed in too tight a skin.

The levels of cat poop have dropped off tremendously. I can now safely ignore the litter box for more than a few hours.

Both cats have discovered they are beholden to us for their very sustenance and are now acting loving and appreciative.

In fact, I have a cute story about sudden outbursts of cat affection. Two nights ago, I was on the couch playing Final Fantasy at some ungodly hour of the night. Ronin was curled up on the cats’ blanket on the end of the couch snoring, and Lin was passed out on the other couch (also snoring). Ronin jumped up at one point and climbed onto my lap. He just sat there purring, alternately staring at Lin and pawing at my hands. Then he would stand up in my lap momentarily and look as though he was going to crawl over the couch arm onto Lin. He did that a few times, making that silly little chirping noise he makes when he really wants attention. Finally, as though he couldn’t take it any longer, he lept directly onto Lin’s chest and stuck his nose right up in Lin’s face. Lin woke up somewhat. Who wouldn’t when a large cat pounces on you while you are sleeping? He patted Ronin on the head, Ronin licked Lin’s nose, and then he jumped back over onto the couch with me and started sucking on the blanket, purring madly. It was so sweet.

Not that everything has been sweetness and light since I cut down the amount of kibble the kitties are getting, mind you, but when they are good, they are very, very good. They are still evil little brats when they are being bad.

They turn a year and a half old tomorrow. My how time flies! I’ll have to crochet them some new toys for the occasion.