Lincoln was always a big cat - not chubby, but muscular and long. My husband spotted him at the shelter (named "Toby" at that time) and insisted we take a look at him. I had already picked on cat - Belden - and since he had driven me down to the shelter I felt obliged to take a look at the cat he found.
Toby/Lincoln was a big old tom who was approximately 3 years old at the time. He had been neutered upon arriving at the shelter and we did not get any information on where he came from and why he was taken there. A striking fellow, he had blue eyes and was a cream/gray striped. Kind of a Siamese/Tabby mix. He seemed friendly enough and sniffed gently at Leokadia/Belden, who I was holding.
"OK, let's get him," I said, feeling like I was being fair since he HAD driven car-less me to the shelter.
After some inital fighting, the cats became fast friends. I took them to the vet to get checked out and at the time Belden weighed 12 pounds and Lincoln was 14.5. They received the first round of vaccines, and had to go back six weeks later for the second round. Then again at the vet they were weighed - B was still at 12, L was at 16! I asked the vet if it was possible for a cat to gain a pound and a half in six weeks and he replied that they must not have weighed him properly the first time. Hmmm...interesting!
Flash forward to November 2003. Lincoln was having problems urinating one night. Concerned, I took him to the emergency vet office with my brother around midnight. The vet found that it was most likely a urinary tract infection. There she also weighed him...and he was at 31 pounds!!!
Some more background: I had noticed over the past year and a half that he had been steadily gaining weight, while B was the same. Concerned, I tried a variety of techniques, all compounded by the fact we had another cat to feed as well. We tried moving Belden's bowl to a higher ledge where she could jump up and eat. Of course, being a little sneak, she would try to eat out of L's bowl on the floor. It got to the point where he started sitting in front of his dish guarding it from B and then urinating in front of it to keep her away from it.
My usual vet basically told me to "accept that he would be that big". Hmmm...
Lincoln is a big cat originally from the mean streets of Chicago now living in the idyllic burbs of Iowa. He blogs about life in general - focusing on the little ankle biters who generally leave him alone and don't pull his tail or whiskers.
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