Meatball used to be a lot thinner cat before becoming a father, but you might say he’s grown a bit of a dad bod in recent years.
Meatball, his partner Mochi, and their two children, Nugget and Pepper, live in Hong Kong. He generously shares the home with two full-time human assistants, wife Daphnie and spouse Koon Wah, to help raise them and keep things tidy.
Except during dinner, theirs is a love-filled home built on kindness and generosity.
Daphnie and Koon Wah began feeding the kittens jointly as they grew larger and went on to solid food.
Unfortunately, Meatball appeared to believe that having more food on hand meant he could eat more than he had previously – at the expense of his family and his waistline.
To make matters worse, Meatball’s daughter Pepper was picking up on his bad behavior, and she swiftly gained weight by snatching more than her fair portion at meals.
As a result, their humans decided to act when they saw a spike in selfishness within the generally joyful family.
“During mealtimes, Koon Wah erected partitions to separate them,” Daphnie told us.
The dividers were originally made of cardboard, but Koon Wah eventually updated them with leftover wood from another project. Daphnie put a decorative flap to each of the cats’ four food cubbies as an extra touch.
“I stitched some cloth from some sake wine we got in Japan on the front of each barrier,” she explained.
All four cats now had their own little eating area where they could consume their meals in solitude.
The status quo has been restored.
“It has helped a bit with separating them during mealtimes, but Meatball and Pepper are still a touch overweight and the chubbier of the four cats in terms of weight control,” Daphnie added.
With Daphnie and Koon Wah’s clever approach to keep things fair among their feline family, the overweight cat dad and his daughter should be able to return to a healthier weight in due time.
