"Fair to Middlin"

I haven't been blogging much lately because there's not much to write about. Things are "fair to middlin," as the expression goes. Not fantastic, not bad.

I've had to give up (at least for now) on all the "high end" canned cat food I've been feeding the boys, the stuff that's "supposed" to be so great for them...you know, the species-appropriate diet. I just couldn't get a handle on their awful output, so in desperation I bought some vet prescription Royal Canin fibre canned. Lots of rice and cellulose to bulk the boys up. It's been helping a great deal over the past 9 days, especially for Derry. Nicki, who needs more fibre than Derry, seems to prefer the Hill's Z/D (also prescription) dry, though he'll eat some of the RC canned as well. So his diet and output still need some tweaking. 

I don't think I'll be able to manage the cost of canned vet food on an ongoing basis (the dry is fine, but the RC is about $4 per can, with taxes). I've taken a look at the Royal Canin retail options and there are a couple of canned choices that I could live with, if they work for the boys. 

But right now I'll continue with the canned fibre.

It's very difficult for me to toss out 18 years of reading and research into what obligate carnivores should be eating, knowing what should work for them...but doesn't.

I'll probably end up donating most of the food I have on hand, which is unfortunate since I just recently had stock-piled cans of Merrick and Instinct, while they were on sale.

On another subject entirely, has anyone ever bought a mattress from an online retailer and if so, are you satisfied?

I've been lurking around The Mattress Underground (TMU) since May, researching mattresses. OMC, I now know too much and have analysis paralysis! I keep waffling over what type of mattress to purchase (memory foam or hybrid), whether in-store or online, and then of course what brand. I actually have an Excel spreadsheet of mattress layer density specs for 12 different mattresses. My issue is that while I fall into what's considered the "average" weight category, my BMI is high. (Translation: I'm short and fat.) So I need high density memory foam in an all-foam bed, or high density memory foam layers in a hybrid, and no company out there (that is either available in Canada or ships to Canada) offers more than 4 lb per cubic foot, which is medium quality and not recommended for people with a high BMI. (Note: Some mattress web sites have outdated specs listed, i.e. densities that are not current, as I found out from contacting the companies directly.)

Okay, there IS one Canadian foam mattress company that does offer good quality, high density foam mattresses (latex too), BUT they don't have "white glove" delivery service in my area and they do NOT accept returns. Huh. I'm not buying a mattress, either from a store or from an online retailer, that I can't return. That's absurd, IMO, especially when you're online shopping. 

Anyway, if anyone out there with a high BMI is reading this and has had good luck with mattress durability, let me know. I currently have a 5.5 year old firm Kingsdown, and I've recently added a 2-inch memory foam topper to it, because it KILLS my hips and shoulders, it's so firm. It was a bit too firm for me when I bought it; my fault, because I mistakenly equated firmness with support and durability and of course those things are not the same at all.

BTW, two take-aways I've gotten from all my reading: 1. Mattresses really aren't designed to provide proper support (especially for heavier people) for more than 5 - 7 years, if that. Unless you're buying latex, which costs an arm and a leg and weighs a ton. Nothing is made the way it used to be! 2. Don't buy a mattress from any company that won't disclose its specs (i.e. what the layers are made of, their densities in pounds per cubic foot, indentation force/load deflection, etc.).

I'll leave you with a cute Pinterest graphic that showed up in my feed the other day; you might already have seen it.  :-)

Peace.