Most posts about my girls start with “I know I’ve said it before, but I’m cat crazy” … this one should be no different.

Sometime last year Murray and I were wandering around our little corner of the world checking out the little shops, most of which are of the antique variety. We stumbled upon an {amazing} non-antique store which also happens to be right at the end of our ally called Woody’s Pet Food Deli. When we went inside we knew immediately it was a place where mega animal lovers go to get their pet food. It is a shop that only sells meat. Raw meat. Of all varieties! At the time I assumed that it was only for dogs so after not seeing any new cat toys I needed, we moved along.

Now Mur was always the ‘strong’ pet parent in our family. I was the softy that would let the girls sleep with me & felt bad if they weren’t allowed to roam to the basement or bask in the sun on the square. Mur was the enforcer and used the word “no!” a lot more than I did. So when I got home in September, this all became far too evident as the cats started to rule the place even more than before. It started to drive me batty!! They were waking me up every morning like clockwork demanding breakfast, they were eating food and trash out of my garbage, they were eating LOAVES of bread along with bags of bagels, pitas and baguettes off of my counter. And I once had to wrestle a chicken breast out of Digi’s mouth. No joke. They were climbing on shelves and counters they knew they shouldn’t be on, up on the mantel, clawing at the plastic on my windows, eating all my plants and in general, becoming all around terrors! … And all of this seemed to revolve around food. They would act out in ways they knew bothered me so that I would give them attention and ultimately, feed them. It was their little game and it was running my life! You may think I am giving them too much credit or am just insane, but before you think that, read this next bit …

In November I was running low on food and found myself with a somewhat free afternoon to just do what I wanted. I had come to the realization that something had to change with the girls and I was going to start my investigation with their diet. I stopped into Woody’s to talk to them about food and met a fantastic woman who was incredibly knowledgeable! After I explained what was going on and the antics my cats were up to, she said “they are hungry. that’s why they keep doing this. they aren’t getting the nutrients they need from their current food…” WOW! It all made so much sense!! I had been buying what I thought was premium dry food but it just wasn’t what they needed. We talked for quite a while and in the end, she sent me home with a large selection of samples to try with the girls. It was amazing!! I was absolutely giddy as I walked home {just ask my dad!} and I had little containers of buffalo, duck, pheasant, Cornish game hen, rabbit and chicken lining a shelf in my freezer.  They went through it very fast and even in the week or so it took to use up my samples, I could tell a difference in their mood and habits. It was phenomenal!

Before I knew it, I was buying several pounds of meat to have on hand for breakfast and dinner. For Christmas and New Years I even got them something special to have… Rabbit and Quail. I’m such a good kitty mama!! And while they are still anxious for their meals, they don’t wake me up anymore. They don’t eat my bread. They don’t act quite as crazy. And because of all of that, our lives are all a smidge better. Hooray for good food!!!

Meat is a lot different than dry food so how do I know how much to feed them, you ask? Well, I figured out a system.
And with all of my systems, there usually is a story behind it …

Mur was a huge fan of muffins. He was always so excited when I would get up early to make him chocolate chip muffins to take to work or brought him breakfast in bed. And I am a huge fan of things that are little … so I decided to get mini-muffin pans a few years ago because I knew I would make us more muffins if they were mini. It was really a win win purchase. So when I bought my first large container of meat I used Woody’s recommendations and the girls prior eating habits to figure out about how much to give them. After debating about making them meatballs, I decided I didn’t really want to roll duck around in my palm in order to shape them. I love you girls, but not enough to ‘play’ with meat. So after quite a bit of thought and container testing, I realized that the mini muffins fit the exact amount of meat I need for their meals. Alas, meat muffins were born.

I think Mur would be a bit disappointed that I have converted our mini muffin pans from chocolate chip to meat, but he would definitely love how excited I am and support it regardless!
… but we probably would have bought some new pans for only meat muffins.

The meat isn’t quite as expensive as I had imagined, which is nice. It definitely is a more expensive way of feeding the girls but really, it’s totally worth it. They are happier and I am happier so until the day I can’t buy myself food, I’ll be feeding them these tasty muffins. With every container of meat I get from Woody’s, I divvy it up into the pans and freeze them. Then once frozen, I pop them out and store them in a container and thaw as needed. They each get one muffin for breakfast and one for dinner {and as snacks during the day if they are really good or really cute} and it’s topped off with some dry food in part to keep them from inhaling their food like Roux and to help me keep the expense down a bit.

As soon as I was a converted meat-feeder, I knew I wanted to do a ton of photos and write a huge blog post about how amazing this all has been and how much I love the shop! The photo shoot was pretty hilarious because I was not only photographing meat {strange} but I was taking photos of my cat’s new favorite food … and they have great noses. I had to wait for the sun to come up and be shining into my apartment which was well after breakfast. So by the time I was ready to take photos they were ready to eat…

… it was tricky getting photos of just the meat muffins and not my cat’s heads 🙂 And the photos of the containers went something like this…

So I let them lick the carton afterwards. I felt like I was giving my kids the spoon after we mixed up some brownies. Ha!

In the end, we are all in love with this diet. And the people at the shop are fantastic, super nice and incredibly knowledgeable. The only draw back is that I am now basically feeding my cats like a dog, so it’s hard for me to leave them. Well, their diet is not the only reason it’s hard for me to leave them but it’s a bigger factor now than before. But I won’t go back to just dry food. Nope. These girls will be eating quail, duck and rabbit for years to come. Mmmmm….

So if you can relate to any of the above nightmares, I’d suggest looking into your animal’s diet. That just might be the ticket to a longer night’s sleep and leaves on your plants!

…Besos!…