22 lbs of love

Innovation! Cut Twinkie-sized hole in basket so Twinkie can exit.

Design Challenge: keep Tito from pushing Kat Kave around.

Solution! Create an attached food bowl tray. Now food moves along with Kat Kave.

Cat's perspective.

Pet Weight Loss // My Cat Tito

How do you get one cat to lose weight and keep the other one right-sized?

After two years of gentle advice from our vetrinarian, we decided to assist our cat Tito in trimming down from a portly 22 pounds of pure love. Our other cat Twinkie did not need to lose any weight. Our challenge was to feed Tito half as much as Twinkie, without Tito gobbling up his brother's extra portions.

The process involved iterative prototypes made from a laundry basket. For one year, we would cover Twinkie while he ate his meals. This was effective in keeping Tito out, except that we would forget that Twinkie was under the basket. Our long-suffering cat would sit patiently under the basket until we'd find him hours later.

We finally realized that cutting a Twinkie-sized hole in the laundry basket was the next step in the evolution of our Kat Kave. This allowed Twinkie to get out of the Kave as soon as he was finished eating. Unfortunately, after six months of this version, Tito realized that he could push the Kave around and get to Twinkie's double portion of food.

To prevent Tito from backsliding on his diet, I created a wall-mounted tray for Twinkie's food dishes. The dishes would now move along with the Kat Kave, no matter where Tito pushed it. Within six months of the final prototype, we had Tito down to 13 pounds. Our vet was flabbergasted and we were as pround as the parents of a Harvard-bound son.

To this day, Tito continues to keep his weight under control.