Deek says hi!  The tulips are starting to grow in the front of the clinic, and Deek desperately wants to get out and eat them, but no one will let him.  He was also trying to get into as much trouble as possible while Dr. Stotland at Dr. Bowling were out of town at continuing education!  He supervised several improvements to the clinic while they were gone, including painting and resurfacing the floors in the back.  Deek succeeded in harassing his sisters, but was not able to wreak as much havoc as he had hoped.  Unfortunately. 

He is very glad to have his mom and dad back today, though!  They were talking about all the things they learned at their continuing education and so many things have changed!  They learned about eyes, skin, emergency room procedures, diagnosing lumps and bumps by the cells that are in them, reading chest and abdomen x-rays (and how to take good ones in the first place)...the list seems endless!  The bad thing, Deek thinks, is that they are going to be changing his food around.  At least that's what he's overheard. 

Deek says his mom and dad told him that the more fat cells he has, the bigger he's likely to get and the hungrier he's going to be because fat cells secrete hormones!  Deek doesn't think this is fair and wishes that fat cells wouldn't do this.  On the good side, he says, he's going to get a meatier diet...yay!  Carbohydrates, like corn, wheat, and gluten, are very complex and cats don't digest these well.  Cats also use protein primarily for energy (not like humans, who use carbs), so all the extra carbs get stored...AS FAT!!!!  Deek doesn't like this because it doesn't seem fair either.  But upon reflection, he says, since cats used to eat mostly protein (mice, birds, etc) and very little plant proteins (corn, wheat, flour, etc), it makes sense that his body isn't designed to use them well.  But he loooooooooooooves them anyway.  And will still try to continue to sneak them when his mom and dad aren't looking. 

He also found out that the reason cats like the dry food so much is that the pet food companies increase the tastiness of the dry food by putting a fat and protein mixture around a mostly carbohydrate biscuit.  It smells sooooooooooooooo good...kind of like doughnuts.  Deek likes wet food too, but it doesn't smell as good as the dry diets.  He also learned that kittens get habituated to food between weaning and six months old...so what they eat then they will most likely prefer for the rest of their life.  (Deek got exposed to LOTS of stuff, so Deek eats LOTS of stuff!!)  But for later in life when his mom and dad want to help kitties with different problems (like diabetes, kidney disease, stomach and intestinal disease), wet food is really important...and it's really hard to do if the kitties don't like it. 

Deek says that if you have questions about your kitties' diets, that you should call his mom and dad and talk to them.  They learned a lot about feline obesity and diabetes too, and some of the new information (which Deek didn't really understand) is groundbreaking.   Deek wishes everyone a happy spring and good luck losing weight!