She thinks she’s fat. I’m not kidding. If I’m curled up on the couch, and there’s not at least a foot between me and the edge of the couch, she’ll just stand there, staring at me until I move over and make a foot’s worth of space. I know that you’re probably thinking it has to do with her whiskers telling her that there’s no room, but trust me, when she hops over, the first thing she does is snuggle up close to me and remove all parts of her body from touching the couch. I’ve had to take the top off her litter box in order for her to use it. She’d climb in, turnaround and leap out, without using it, otherwise. (Naturally, she wouldn’t tell me that she had to go and ask to go outside, she’d just crap on the floor. :rolleyes: ) When I first got adopted by her, she’d use it just fine. Then one day, she decided she was “too big” to get in it, and wouldn’t use it until I took the top off. I figure one of these days, I’m going to come home and catch her sticking her paw down her throat.
If she tries to force you to buy her a treadmill or a Bowflex, you’ll know for sure.
Watch the bowls, as well. If her water bowl is empty 28 times a day but the food bowl isn’t touched, you MAY have a problem.
Seek help immediately. The longer she’s allowed to do this, the harder it is to treat. But be aware, this COULD take years of intensive therapy, possible inpatient. Hope you have good insurance.
:smack:
My cats are the opposite, they seem to think they’re smaller than they actually are*. They try to fit themselves into tiny boxes and they plop their huge bodies down on my chest and wonder why I can’t breathe.
*The kitten is the exception to this; she thinks her barely 3 pounds of bulk outweighs everyone else’s 12 to 14 pounds.
I have two cats with eating disorders.
Rex is anorexic, which I understand is a rare thing for a boy. He eats with some frequency; however, he only eats a small amount, and then goes and “purges” by exercising excessively. On the surface, it looks like he has AD/HD, but if you look deeper, you see that his bouncing off the walls is a desperate attempt by him to burn calories. He is nothing but fur and bones, the poor boy. I have tried feeding him small but high-calorie meals, yet he continues to become skinnier and skinnier.
My girl kitty, C.C., is bulimic. She is rather fat, but I think C.C. is self-conscious because she’s constantly comparing herself with her anorexic brother. She has a tendency to “binge” on her dry food, and then throw it up in front of me.
Strangely, Rex always eats the throw-up, then goes spazzing around the house to burn off the calories.
I’ve decided to limit their exposure to mass media, which is surely distorting their image of what an attractive cat looks like. They’re always making fun of Garfield for his weight; what does that teach impressionable young kittens like Rex and C.C.? From now on, we will only watch cat documentaries on Animal Planet that have realistic-looking, “everyday” type cats, with a range of body types, to show them that there are a lot of different kinds of “normal.”
I did try to make them watch the recent Dr. Phil shows on eating disorders, but they fell asleep.
She doesn’t think she’s fat. She’s just annoyed that you are lying on her couch. 
[Norma Desmond}It’s the couch that got small![/Norma Desmond]
Can’t be, she doesn’t lie on the couch when I’m not on it.
Kitty claustropobia?
OK. It’s just that she can’t stand to see you comfortable.
It’s not without reason that cats are witches familiar spirits.