Gold Level Feline Friendly Practice Owner, Howard Gittelman decided to try the NoBowl Feeding System to keep his cat, Gary, stimulated and engaged.  He kept a diary of his progress, but it didn’t quite turn out as planned.

Day 1 of NoBowl Feeding

Extremely excited! Pulled my wife Jodi aside and invited her to help me fill all six fake mice with kibble. Reluctant at first, Jodi finally came around and it was real nice to spend some quality time together. With our work schedules, it can be hectic, so the NoBowl Kitty Feeding System has been a godsend! Note to self, write the company and the inventor, veterinarian Liz Bales, and thank them for a great feeding system and something cool that can re-connect the family. After the kitties were all filled, we placed them strategically around the house. Gary our real-life kit-cat, seemed very keen on what we were doing. We’ll wait and see.

Evening, Day 3 NoBowl Feeding System

What a sport! Despite a few set backs, Jodi thinks the NoBowl feeding system was the right decision for our cat and our family.

Jodi came home from a long day at work to find two of the mouse skirts ripped up and my dog, Addie, not too far away. Jodi was extremely understanding, but I could see that she was a bit miffed about the mess. She cleaned while I did some patchwork on the mouse skirts. Took me two hours, but it’s all cool.  Thank God for a boyscout merit badge in sewing!

Day 4, NoBowl Feeding System

Gary seem ravenous and reluctant to leave the old resting place of his food bowl. I don’t understand. I said to him. “Man up! you don’t need food! There are mice in the house. Mmmm…delicious mice. Let’s go find them!” I crawled around on the floor to show him what a hunting cat looks like. “Meow. Meow. Is that a delicious mouse I smell?  I spy a little mouse, Gary!” But he preferred to hang out with Jodi while she ate her breakfast. Jodi left a little earlier for work today than usual. I hope everything is okay at the office.

Git em Gary! Git em!  Gary finds the kibble that falls out of the mouse irresistable!

Evening Day 4 NBFS

Jodi doesn’t mind the little bit of extra work, not when she has a chance to watch Gary having so much fun!

Woke up to the sound of something clunky around in the downstairs kitchen. I instructed Jodi to call 911 while I picked up my son’s baseball bat and headed downstairs. False alarm.  Gary had found one of the mice and was smacking it around on the linoleum floor. Unfortunately, it was too late to call the police back, so by the time we met them at the door and then answered the concerns of our next-door neighbor (she was awakened by the flashing lights), we lost two hours of sleep. I reminded Jodi that every step forward sometimes comes with one step back.

Day 6 NoBowl

Can’t for the life of me figure out why the cat keeps staring at the fridge. I confirmed that all the mice were empty, so I know that he’s eating. Had trouble finding two of them, but later located them under Addie’s bed. Have no idea why the cat would hide the mice there. I know it isn’t Addie. I’ve trained that dog within an inch of her life. She knows cat food is for cats and dog food is for dogs. Still…

Evening Day 7

3 am and there’s more commotion downstairs. Found Gary in the kitchen sink licking spaghetti sauce off of last night’s dinner plates. I reassured Jodi that everything was okay and asked her please if she could remember to do the dishes before we go to bed. After that, couldn’t go back to sleep, so figured I’d kill time by looking for the mice and refilling them. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any of them, so I had to wake Jodi for just an intsy little bit to help me with the search. Jodi’s not an early morning person, so I have to remember to forgive her when she’s not so communicative.

Day 8

Good girl, Addie. Smell is okay. Eating, no. Goooooooood Girl

Is Gary leaning down? Addie on the other hand seems to be gaining.  Found Gary next to dog’s food bowl and looked him over. A visit to the bathroom scale confirmed it: he’s up a whole 2 pounds, but I’ll betcha it’s all muscle. Hunting is great for the muscles! Talked the whole thing through with Jodi while she did her morning yoga and meditation. God I love that woman!

Day 9

Had a call from Sam Markowitz, a divorce attorney in NYC. Haven’t the vaguest idea what that’s all about and left a message with Jodi to see if everything is okay with the kids. Also spent the better half of this morning on hold with the NoBowl Kitty Feeding System trying to find a way to order more skirts for the mice.  Merit badge or no, I can’t keep up. It appears that my little hunters are savages!

Day 12

Dr. Danville says I should take 1 pill in the morning and 1 in the evening for nerves and stress. Since Jodi is staying with my daughter, keeping up with work, finding the mice, filling the mice, and washing and replacing the skirts is a big job and I’m sad to report that Dr. Danville has asked me to take a break from the NoBowl Kitty Feeding System just until things return to some sense of normalcy.   But I have a secret confession. I kept one of the mice! Every now and then, I put one of my pills in it, bat it around, and eat whatever comes out. Gary seem happier than ever. I leave the fridge door open and he is quite content to sit on the meat shelf, enjoy the whitefish I got from Zabars, and watch me play.

Hope you all enjoyed this bit of fun.  Fear not, Jodi didn’t leave Howard and in fact, the NoBowl feeding system has been a huge success at the Gittelman household.  It was just the influence of his evil ghost writer that spurred Howard to publish this piece.  Like us on Facebook if you want to be notified of more of fun companion animal stories like this.  

Interested in purchasing the NoBowl Feeding System for your cats?  Here’s the link!

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