olive the cat, not the oil

almost works up a sweat

during her usual workout routine.

at her recent annual vet visit 

 after weighing her in at 9.6 pounds,

they determined that she was overweight

and assigned her a ‘goal weight’ of 8 pounds.

the first suggestion was to up her physical efforts

(which currently include an all-indoor circuit training routine

of slowly moving from couch to bed to rugs and back

with an occasional look out the window

a saunter up the 8 stairs

or taking a few steps into the kitchen to eat),

other suggestions were to 

give her healthier food

take away her bowl

(I’m half Italian, I worry if her bowl gets low)

and put her new healthy food

in something she has to work to get to.

with her round figure

set atop lilliputian legs

that will never get any taller

she does resemble a bit of a child’s-hand-sized furry bowling ball

and luckily she has a year to lose her 1.6 pounds

but timing is everything

and as luck would have it

she recently received the gift of

her very own cat advent calendar

filled with little kitty treats ‘n things

set to kick off tomorrow 

and this might be a long year

for the both of us. 

—

“i do not oppose form, but only form as a goal.”

-ludwig mies van der rohe