Product: Royal Canine

Indulge me. I have to talk about my cat.

At first I thought it was the change in temperature, but then I wasn't so sure. Poor little feline was throwing up a lot. I'd wake up in the morning, and there it would be on the rug. I'd come home from work, and there it would in front of the door. I'd get ready for bed, and there it would be in the hallway. Nasty, nasty. And no, these weren't hairballs. Triple nasty.

I didn't know what to do. And I'm embarrassed to say, I haven't taken her to the vet in years. Not since she was a kitten and got all her shots. I don't know, it just didn't seem necessary. She was fine! She never left my apartment! She was the giddiest cat ever.

But this seemed serious. So I called a vet in town. They asked me how I got their number and I told them it was because the previous tenant in my apartment had left their magnet on my fridge when I moved in.

The doctor was on vacation so I got an appointment the next day with the man who was covering for her. My cat saw me take the carrying case out in the morning, and disappeared under the bed. After failed attempts at pleading, begging and bargaining on my part, I resorted to food manipulation to get her out from under there. Like a charm, she was out. And 2 seconds later, in the carrying case. Sucker.

At the doctor's office, I could feel their shame in me when I told them I hadn't brought her to the vet in years. "You know she needs to have her teeth cleaned," the doctor told me, pulling back my traumatized cat's mouth, exposing her fangs. "We'd need to clean these, and potentially pull out necessary extractions."

"I never heard of brushing a cat's teeth before," I said increduously, in the vet office of my rich suburban town.

"Do you have pet insurance?" they asked me, handing me the brochure.

"Do I have what?

After feeling my cat's intenstines with his hands, listening to her heart, and weighing her, he said that he'd need to run a battery of tests on her to see what the ailment was.

"Tests for what?"

"For anything," he said. "And I'd rather be serious about it now and tell you the worst case scenario, then let you think that everything will be fine, only to give you bad news down the road."

"Bad news like what?"

"Anything. Leukemia...." He kept the list going for a good 30 seconds. Then he printed out a list of all the tests and blood work they'd have to do. The total came to $432.

"400 dollars??" I exclaimed from my chair. My cat was pouncing all over the room, smelling the scale and the door handles and the cotton balls.

"And 32." He said. "432 dollars."

"Can't I just, change her food or something? Can't we just start with that?"

"I don't know what to tell you," he said. "If it was my cat, I would do it."

I sat there silently. I stared at the list, then at my cat, then at the list. "Maybe you should call your parents," he said.

"Maybe I need to think about this," I said.

I picked my cat up from the floor and plopped her back in the carrier. I went home. I went online and found a gourmet pet store. I drove over there a few minutes later.

I said to the man, "My cat's been throwing up. I need the best food you've got."

With barely a word, he led me to the back of the store and handed me a free sample of Royal Canine. "Best food on the market," he said.

I took it home and emptied it out for the cat. I sat with her while she smelled it. And then she started eating. And eating. And eating. And "asking" for more.

It's been over a week, and she hasn't thrown up once. She looks less gaunt. She doesn't beg for her wet food anymore.

Here's what I've learned since: There's been a rapid recall of cat and dog food across the gamut. Apparently there was some bad rice in China, and for a few months now it's been infecting pet food. Some cats and dogs have died. I have no idea if this was the problem, but the time periods match up. Bad Rice = Bad Vomit. Every item listed on the "stop feeding your pets these ingredients right now" list was in the regular store-bought food I've been buying for her.

"Junk food," the pet store owner told me with a gruff. "Cats don't need wet food. Everything she needs is in this bag.