Apricot Discovers the Joys of Physical Exercise

And by that I mean he has the zooms, badly. Yesterday he spent a great deal of time zooming from one end of the house to the other. I could hear him go up the cat tree at the one end and see him go by me in the living room into the kitchen.

This is quite amazing. He's also gotten increasingly athletic with his toys, tossing them in the air and pouncing on them. I didn't know you could get in shape in such a short amount of time, but he seems determined to do so.

He has lost a lot of his pudge and now looks visibly more sleek, as well as now he has a roll of skin when I pet him over his shoulders where he's lost fat but the skin hasn't shrunk back. He doesn't seem to weigh any less, and he's eating quite heartily (dry food, anyway). I think he's turning fat into muscle, and since muscle takes up less space for the same weight of fat, he looks like he's lost weight when really he's just getting in shape.

Compare this picture, taken on the 17th:

pudge kitty

to this picture, taken yesterday on the 26th:

Not so much pudge now!

You can see the improvement! I guess he didn't move a lot in the shelter's cat room, just stayed on his shelf all the time.

He has taken to coming in and greeting me in the kitchen shortly after I turn off the alarm after I enter. Yesterday when I came home I saw him in the living room window sleeping in the cat tree there. His paws and legs were sticking straight out of the dip in the cup. He looked goofy, but he kind of scared me a little because he was so still. After a very long moment he moved, apparently feeling my eyes on him, and looked up and out the window.

There was an astonished expression on his face as he registered that I was standing on the sidewalk outside, with just a small landscaping area between us. He didn't realize I could be there. So I waved hi at him (I wave at him inside, too, so this isn't a new scary thing to do) and then came inside, much to his pleasure.

legs straight out is apparently a normal thing 

And with all the exercise he is doing, and all the boldness he is developing (a boldness still highly embroidered with caution), his meows are getting louder. Sigh. Including the "where are you" meows in the middle of the night, or more accurately, an hour before my alarm goes off this morning. He still sounds like a squeaky hinge, though.

I am being told that I should play with the cat instead of writing about him, so I shall go do that.