We recently went from a 4 pet household to a 3 pet home.  This is Amber.  Our dear 19 year old Tortie.  She passed to Rainbow Bridge on 4-16-07.  She was abandoned at the school I worked at as a young kitten and I brought her home with the intention of finding her a home.  (yeah, right).  Our first son was born a few weeks after she came to live with us.  She grew up along side our two sons.  She was a great companion to them.  She also was unusual in that she was able to travel in her kitty carrier and went on many family vacations with our travel trailer.  That trailer was just a 2nd home to  her.


This is Haley.  She is my 6 year old Papillon.  She is a very dominant 5 pound girl.  She tries to run the house.  She is very intelligent.  She used to live with my elderly parents.  She saved my mom's life when she had a heart attack, waking my dad up to call the ambulance.  She's the ultimate lap dog though, and doesn't like to exercise much.  I see these agility Paps on TV.  Hah!  Not her!  She's a princess.  She doesn't like to walk on wet grass and hates to be in the rain.  She can be very moody too, and her feelings can be hurt very easily.  Our favorite saying is that she has "too much personality" and if she could only "talk with words".  She seems to have alot to say, all the time. 



This is Chloe.  She is my 4 year old Pomeranian who weighs 10 pounds.  She is a rescue from a family member who could no longer care for her.  She was also very timid and afraid from living with a more dominant dog.  She is now very relaxed and outgoing and a very happy girl.  She loves people and loves to EAT!  She loves to run and play.  Her favorite past time is to wrestle and play chase with Holly and Haley.  She's a silly girl that just loves to give kisses.



Last but not least is Holly Berry, Holly for short.  She is our little miracle rescue kitty.  She is a 2 year old Tuxedo.  We rescued her at the age of 5 months, around Christmas time (hence the name).  She was a wild feral living under our deck with her mother and litter mates.  We were able to trap only her, the others left after we captured Holly.  Despite being told by several rescues that taming her was unlikely to be successful because of her age, we decided to try anyway.  It took a full month before I could handle her, and a full year before she was fully tamed.  But she is now a totally tamed house cat.  She is quite unusual.  She thinks she is a "dog".  She has bonded with my dogs and is a member of the pack.  She comes when she is called.  She carries her tail over her back like the dogs. She eats dog biscuits.  She is crate trained, like the dogs.  They all retire to their own crates at night (yes, voluntarily...it's a stampede...each running to their own quarters).  She has her own crate, nicely decorated with a privacy curtain and private back section with her litter box  .  She also travels in her carrier in the car and has also gone camping with us, just as Amber did.  In fact, we had all 4 pets in the 28' trailer with us last year.    Quite the experience, along with two sons over 6 foot tall.  She is a great cat.  Since I worked so hard to tame her...everyone now calls me the "Cat Whisperer"!    She is truely a unique girl.

I like your recipe.  I considered using canned salmon for my girls, but I wasn't sure about the bones, though they are soft and crumbly.  I have a small Pap and Pom.  I take it your Yorkie doesn't have any problem with digesting them since you put them thru the processer?  I guess salmon is going to be on the menu in our house.  It already is when I make salmon patties for the husband (not my thing though...)   

Thank you.  You know, we are very lucky.  Our most recent kitty addition, Holly seems to be following in Amber's paw prints.  We rescued Holly from under our deck 1 1/2 years ago (I caught her in a trap).  She was about 5 months old and totally wild.  No one thought we could tame her.  But I did.  And not only did I tame her, but she is 99% domesticated.  A total lap kitty.  She is only "feral" in that she is a little cautious, spooks easily in new situations and with new people, but she warms up very quickly.  But the hilarious thing is that she has bonded with my two toy dogs and thinks she's a dog and a member of the pack.  She holds her tail over her back like they do.  Get this, she's crate trained! It's her den and that's where her litter box is.  She comes when she's called.  She's the one that likes dog biscuits.  (See my dog biscuit recipe that I posted).  AND, she travels in her carrier when we go camping or off to visit my folks (they love cats, so they get their cat fix when I bring her over).  So she's every bit the travel kitty that Amber was.  So we are blessed to have her.   Having her has helped us deal with our loss of Amber.  While she will never replace Amber, she certainly will help fill the void in our hearts.

We had to say goodbye to Amber on April 16th.  She was 19.  We were fortunate in that her passing was not related to the tainted food issue, so we didn't have to deal with the horrible feelings associated with that.  I don't know what I would have done if that would  have been the case.  I feel for all of you who have suffered losses because of that.  Amber was a very remarkable kitty.  She came into our lives as an abandoned kitten just before the birth of our first child, so she has grown up along with our children!  She despised all other cats except for the cat who lived with us when she moved in, and that bond with Midnight was close until he passed away at 16 years of age.  Amber was a wonderful companion to our two sons, a persistant cuddle bug.  She did everything with our family, including travel the midwest and eastern United States and Canada in her carrier with our family and travel trailer.  I used to joke that she was easier to travel with than the kids because she would just sleep and not hassle us with "Are we there yet??"  As her senior years advanced, her arthritis made it harder for her to walk and she lost her vision.  Yet she always used her litter box.  She always knew when we came in the room, and always came to greet us, looking for a pet and a scratch behind the ear.  Even on her last day, she struggled to come to us.  She was a very tough and determined kitty.  We are going to miss her on our vacation this year.  My bedroom just won't be the same without her. 

I picked up this Recipe from Simplypets.com 

Both my CAT   and my dogs LOVE these biscuits.  I just break it into a smaller piece for my cat.  My Pom goes absolutely crazy when I pull one of these out.  They are easy to make!  I added the peanut butter option and I used organic flour and milk.

Comet & Alex's Dog Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup non-fat powdered dry milk
1 tsp. sugar
6 T. butter or margarine
1 egg
1/2 cup cold water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients with water.  Knead for 3 minutes or do as I do and mix it all up in the food processor.  Dough will form a ball.  Roll out to 1/2 inch thick and cut into small shapes such as stars, moon, dog bones, rectangles or small circles.

Bake on greased (I use PAM) cookie sheets for 30 minutes.  (watch so they don't burn).  *you might want to lower the temp and bake longer instead* 

Variations: Add 3 Tablespoons of chicken or beef boullion or 4 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter.

These baked pretty firm but not as hard as some biscuits.  Next time I'm going open the oven door at the end and leave them in  the warm oven with the door open to slowly cool them to see if they can dry even firmer. 

Yes, on April 16th.  But it was because of her age and health issues, not food related causes.  She was 19. 

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for your reply.  I found it informative.  My cat ate a combination of canned and dry.  She ate the healthiest in her later years as I became more educated in the differences in cat foods.  (She ate grocery store brands for the majority of her life, and she made it to 19 years!)  She surprised us, tolerating the higher protein despite the kidney issues, but like I said, any time we lowered the protein content, her bowels protested.  We had to work with her body.  She lasted a long time on that diet, and even when she passed, she hadn't lost much weight at the end.  I think keeping her weight up kept her healthy enough to stay with us longer.  If nothing else, I think this pet food poisoning crisis has made pet parents more aware of pet nutrition and pet food ingredients.  At least that's a good thing that has come out of this tragedy.

Jenny, could you explain more?  The crude protein in Kumpikat is listed at not less than 31% which is higher than alot of other dry kibble I've seen.  In my case, my senior cat was on kitten kibble (and canned) mainly for calories.  The protein content was actually too high for her kidneys, but her bowels wouldn't handle a higher carb load which would have technically been better for her.  So we had to compromise and listen to what her body wanted.  Better to keep her weight up and bowels happy.  She made it to age 19.  But I am curious as to your reasons about the protein vs. carbs in Kumpi vs. other kibble.  Thanks.

Evanger's Classic Chicken canned cat food and Organic Braised Chicken canned cat food continue to be well accepted and well tolerated by my 2 year old cat and by my very aged senior cat (19 years) until she finally succumbed to old age and other ailments unrelated to the food recalls  .  No tummy upsets and no changes in their bowel habits despite a total change in their diet.  And my older cat had a very sensitive stomach.  I have found the food to be darker in color, but not nasty looking (ie. black sauce) as described by some other posters.  Personally, I've actually found lamb pet food made by some other pet food companies to have an offensive odor that  I didn't care for.   Thus far, Evanger's is a keeper in this household unless our experience changes.

Online order.  Credit card payment.  Fast delivery, ground shipment.  Satisfied.

Excellent experience.  Purchased canned product and bagged.  Credit card payment.  Ground shipment.  Fast delivery.  Online ordering.  Freshness dates good.

Smooth texture.  Both cats like it.  I was happy with product.  I switched because of their association with Menu Foods.   

Tried this product.  I thought it had a really strong odor compared to other canned kitten products.   If your cat doesn't eat it all right away....ewwww.   It can't be out even for a little bit.  Maybe I just have a sensitive nose but my husband even complained about it.  I used this with my frail senior kitty who picks at her food....so it takes her awhile to eat.  We couldn't tolerate this one.

Started my 19 yo cat on this dry kibble without problems so far.  Switched from Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Kitten kibble which has been the only dry food she would eat that agreed with her and kept her weight up.  She has been in slow renal failure for years, but has been stable.  She's my kitty that throws up very easily and gets loose stools very easily but she has not had any problems with the diet switch.  She is also eating Evangers canned (to supplement her diet and to get powdered potassium and cosequin supplements).  I would say that so far, it's been a good experience.

Should clarify that when I mentioned feeding my dogs the classic chicken and rice dinner, I was feeding them the DOG food, not CAT food.   Just want to be clear.