Makena at 9 months old

Makena is now 9 months old. I had her spayed in December. As much as I would like to breed Siamese cats, now is not the time.

Makena's name means "happy one." Happy that she lives in a house that will never, ever feed her poisonous dry, species-inappropriate vet kibble. Happy that she has a cat guardian who is aware of the dangers of vaccinations and will not be getting any -- and that her veterinarian is supportive of this choice.

I wanted to report that after Makena's spaying, she only used homeopathy to recover -- a homeopathic remedy combination that included arnica, staphisagria and hypernicum. In less than 36 hours she was jumping up on the desk again and back to playing. It's just more proof for me that cats and homeopathy work so well together.

Makena has recovered very well after her spaying, which is, of course, major surgery. In the days following her operation, she got special treats that included organic raw chicken hearts, raw lamb stew bits and chicken wings.

Makena cleans her teeth by eating chicken wings on "prey night", which we do once a week or so. She especially loves the wing tips. I give them to her supervised and she crunches them down, bone and all. Perfectly safe but a bit messy sometimes. If I see her dragging it around I pick her and the wing up and put her in the shower stall so she can finish eating.

I just wish that I had known about raw diet for my cats many years ago. I strongly believe that my two other Siamese cats wouldn't have died from the illnesses caused by dry cat food. That includes all these prescription diet formulas pushed by the veterinary world. Not only do these prescription diets not work, but they are causing all kinds of illnesses in cats over the long term.

Critics will argue that the Pet Food Industry does short term testing. A couple of issues with that:

--the short term tests done by the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO are 6 months, at most;
--as long as 6 out of 8 or so cats do not lose more than 15% of their body weight and pass a few blood tests, the food is deemed to be "complete and balanced";
--if, out of the 8 or so cats tested, 2 of them die, that's still considered acceptable for a food to be put on the market;
--claims of longevity, reproductive or multi-generational health cannot be substantiated by this methodology

How is it that veterinarians cannot comprehend the basic diet -- raw meat -- that felines have existed on for more than 40 million years -- is what they should be eating now? Are they really so blinded by the "bottom line" of sales of dry cat food in their clinics that they continue to remain so disconnected with respect to this fundamental basic of feline nutrition? It's really not difficult to feed your cat a species-appropriate healthy diet.

There's really no excuse for their ignorance, particularly with indictments now being handed down in the United States for a mixture of melamine and cyanuric acid in cat food.

As cat-guardians become more informed that a dry food diet is a junk food diet, the people they will blame are not the pet food company representatives or CEOs, but the veterinarians who prescribed and sold these poor quality, junk food prescription diet formulas that are making so many cats sick.

What will it take for the vets to wake up to their role in this massive consumer fraud?

Litigation?

Letters to vet clinics from pet owners saying they will take the business elsewhere unless the clinics stop selling this kibble and carbohydrated laden canned foods that are making so many pets sick?

Regulatory changes to the FDA to institute effective pet food company plant and ingredient inspections?

A boycott campaign?

All of the above -- and more?