My cat & I are each others loyal comapanions - I am not her pet, and she is not my pet. I'm pretty sure that in the next world she is going to help me with the grief I have felt resulting from previous cats that I've been lucky enough to be given the grace of in my life.

However, I am now a vegetarian (not vegan, but think I might be heading that way) and I don't care what anyone says, my cat is becoming increasingly confused about whether or not it is ok to eat any of the many different types of "catfood" that I offer her.

Cat owners will know that cats are lactose intolerant, they may like creamy milk sometimes but it's a bit like giving dogs chocolate - it is very bad for their health if they have too much. I tried to give her milk that is lactose-free once and is supposed to be ok fro cats to drink but she didn't like it. Not only that but she will only drink rainwater and not water from the tap. For this reason, plus she's had most of her teeth removed because they rotted, she cannot really cope with these "everything your cat needs!!!! dry foods". She needs the moisture in wet catfood, I meant.

This morning I wrote many different types of food on pieces of paper and explained what each one represented to her - even stuff like cheese and vegetables. Anyway, she looked at me like she knows that I know already that cats are carnivores & didn't really know why I was asking. She wandered over across all the bits of paper and didn't touch any except for the corner of MICE. As far as I'm aware my cat hasn't ever killed any birds - I feed birds in my garden and she's not even interested in chasing the ones that eat seeds that I scatter on the ground. She has occasionally caught mice though, but she brings them carefully inside and finds me. This is very traumatic for her and usually I manage to release the mouse "unharmed" back outside but I worry many of them are a little injured or have heart attacks after they are set free.

Any suggestions? Her name is Brandy and she is around 15 years old but you wouldn't know it when she scampers up and down the stairs sometimes stretching out, purring and clawing my (thankfully) resilient stair carpet!

I love her very much indeed for many reasons not least because she seems to know when I'm getting too stressed eg. she will just come and sit on my computer keyboard when I'm typing something when I'm feeling overly emotional

Many of you here seem to be ardent animal lovers and I feel a bit like I've been invited into animal-lovers heaven here

Love and Hugs,

Stark777 Brandy