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I had never given any thought to chocolate and cats, particularly because Ted and Al are mostly dry-kibble eaters. They don’t seem to care much for people food.
But one day I discovered that even Al is not immune to the allure of cocoa.
Awhile back, I read about a starlet who gets her chocolate fix by stirring baking cocoa into oatmeal. I tried it and hated it. I left the uneaten cocoa oatmeal in a dish while I went to the kitchen for some Cheerios, and when I came back to the sunroom, Al was slurping up the cocoa oatmeal.
A few minutes later, Al was stumbling around like a drunken kitty, and I realized the cocoa might have not been a good idea. I was worried but realized it would be pointless to take him to the vet because he had eaten so little that pumping his stomach wouldn’t help. I kept watch, and soon he was back to normal.
Al was lucky. Here’s what I found at www.peteducation.com: "Some cats tolerate chocolate better than others. Although the toxic dosage varies from animal to animal, everyone agrees that chocolate contains a lethal ingredient, a methylxanthine called theobromine, and that baking chocolate contains 10 times more of this lethal ingredient than milk chocolate.
"Theobromine acts on four areas of your cat’s body:
"1. It increases the rate and force of contractions of the heart.
"2. It acts as a diuretic, causing your pet to lose body fluids.
"3. It affects the gastrointestinal system, causing vomiting and diarrhea and it may cause stomach ulcers.
"4. It acts on the nervous system, causing convulsions, seizures and sometimes, death."
So take it from Al: Keep cocoa – and chocolate Halloween candy – away from your cats.
