How-I-Fed-My-Cats-Raw

When Dr. Tim Trader and Dr. Douglas Graham gavea talk to an audience of 30 or so people in thebarn’s living room, Earl arrived last and peacefullytook a snooze on the futon. When my assistantsfor my Living Nutrition business were workingaway in the barn’s office, Earl often hung out andnapped on the office desk, keeping us calm andamused by his gregariousness and repose. Whenthe Rawstock crew who had camped out in theliving room awoke at 6:00 a.m. to head out to thefestival at Bill Macdonald’s apple farm, Earl wouldshout “ROWWW...ROWWW...ROWWW,” demandingto be fed by whoever was within earshot. One daythat command landed on Laurie Masters, who waslaughing her head off as she echoed Earl’s pleas. Earl demanded raw food when he was hungry and respect at all times. Hiswishes were granted and he was a fully vested family member and office co-manager.Earl was so healthy and beautiful over the first five years of our partnership that I thought he’d live way beyond the age of 20.I did get one sign, however, that his previous diet and age were catching up with him.I was feeding Earl a varied raw diet of avocado, chopped veggiesand chicken parts, ground turkey, fish and egg. Since he was notmuch of a hunter, and thinking he needed some bone as cats wouldobtain in nature, I occasionally added some chopped chicken legbones and backs to his diet. A local grocery store sold those parts.Using a hatchet, I chopped up the bones, blood marrow and all, ona wooden plank, and Earl munched on the pieces. I wondered if hisintestines would be OK with that, but he seemed to have no problems.Cats, I had learned, have acidic gastric secretions which are farstronger than those of humans, and dissolving bone is somethinga cat can normally easily do. However, knowing that sharp piecesmust be avoided, I chopped and mashed the bone to small chunkswith no pointy shards. I assumed that Earl would have no problemcrunching on those chunks. But, I later learned a painful lesson.One day, Earl sustained an odd injury. The first or second vertebra somehow became displaced, resulting on his tail taking a45-degree turn there. Perhaps he got his tail caught in a fence when jumping down, or he had fallen off a tree limb onto hisrump. I took him to the vet and was told it was not painful and was best left alone—manipulation to straighten it would onlydamage the ligaments. So, this crooked tail remained.The vet had given Earl a brief examination and reported to me that virtually all of Earl’s teeth were missing. I was shocked andsaddened, feeling responsible for causing that condition with the thick chicken back feedings. So I fed no more bone to Earl.Earl managed just fine thereafter on his raw diet of finely ground, sliced and mashed foods.8