Jasper Edition part 2!

Here we are a little under 2 months after Jasper's hunger strike. How did we make out? Well... for us, we got no answers to his little hunger strike, but for him, he got us wrapped around his paw a little tighter.

Not wanting to end up on the road that would lead us to a bigger vet bill, I decided we would do whatever it takes at home to get him to eat more. Right off the bat, I decided to let him explore the house for a few minutes when we got back from the vet's office.

His first stop: the dining room food bowl, second stop: the food bowl in the living room, and a third stop at the kitchen food bowl. Have we been here before?! We sure have - his little overnight stint at the vet hospital. We paid over $1500 for a deposit when he stopped eating before, only for him to eat right off the bat for the hospital staff. What the... seriously, that's a lot of money for him to try and make liars out of us. So sure, we just spent a quarter of that for the same issue - should I be surprised that he pulled that stunt again?

We get him back to his room, and he still won't eat his portioned-out food. Fine, we will switch his food to the general population food. He eats it, but not as much as when he was out with free rein. Why?! Nothing has changed in his room. Since I don't want him to lose any more weight, I decide to let him have free rein, but Gene said it has to be supervised.

So he was getting an hour or two at a time of free rein as my schedule allowed. Then it turned into all-day free rein. Theoretically, nothing can go wrong; he's eating more and is even happier being out and about (which he hated before!). I mean, when you have the choice of one food bowl or 8 different food bowls with 2 different foods, we would all choose the latter.

The unexpected result that I didn't get to witness right away was his very loud and obnoxious meows and cries to be let out. Gene, as usual, was sticking to his guns; he doesn't want to clean up messes or deal with fighting, so he doesn't get free rein when I'm not home. Jasper and Clara fight—sibling love, I guess. So when things get heated, he either doesn't let Jasper out or puts him back in his room.

One day I'm home around lunchtime and I hear a very obnoxious and loud meow. I'm baffled; it sounded like one of the cats was trying to say they didn't feel good. Gene matter-of-factly says that's Jasper—he wants to be let out. Apparently, he does that in the middle of the night too...

I shake my head, spoiled beyond belief all because of a short hunger strike. He's slowly gaining his weight back and truly thinks he's the king of the house. So be it, he's our million-dollar cat at this point.

Till our tails cross again

Mel and Jasper