Persnickety Sam

How can a free bag of high-end cat food equate to a $400 bill and a dousing in fecal matter? Let me explain…

Ten days ago, I received a complimentary coupon for a free bag of one of a few brands of high end cat food. Being such a lover of coupons, and wanting to alter my cats’ diets to a fish based from a poultry based food, I visited a local feed store and received an $18 bag of food for FREE. I was so proud of myself for having used a coupon for such an expensive item. All three of my cats seemed to enjoy the new kibble; especially my highly sensitive cat who barfs at the drop of a hat. With the barfing seemingly minimized throughout the trial run, I thought that I had found a good alternative to a lower cost food.

Of course sometimes things that seem to good to be true, turn out to be just that. My highly sensitive cat apparently wasn’t able to digest the new kibble. A trip to the vet showed he wasn’t able to pass it through his system. A few enemas later and roughly a $400 visit to the vet, I ended up in the bathroom with him; both of us covered in his feces. “Just LOVELY!” I thought. All because of a free offer of cat food.

Now, of course, I’m not a vet. Maybe I should have slowly introduced the new food, especially since two of my cats are in their elderly years. Perhaps the problem was with the way I changed out the food and not the free bag of food itself. But then again, I would have been stuck trying to hunt down coupons to help pay for  more expensive pet food from here on out.  So at this point maybe it’s best that I’m going back to my less expensive food (unfortunately at the expensive of my poor Sam’s digestive system!) Now that I’ve resolved the food issue, hopefully I won’t be visiting the vet again any time soon.

Have you had experiences where FREE really wasn’t free?