美国国家公共电台 NPR For Fat Cats, The Struggle Is Real When It Comes To Losing Weight And Keeping It Off

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Imagine sleeping much of the day, never going outdoors, and crying for food at all hours. That pretty much sums up the life of a cat - or BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music - or more to the point of this story, the fat cat. It's estimated that more than half the indoor cats in this country are overweight. Now researchers are looking for ways to help felines¹ slim down. Robbie Harris reports from member station WVTF.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAT MEOWING)

ROBBIE HARRIS, BYLINE²: Erin Shibley and Chirag Rathod are cat parents to Miko.

ERIN SHIBLEY: Miko Angelo.

CHIRAG RATHOD: Miko Angelo is his full name, yes. Miko for short.

HARRIS: It's dinner time at their apartment in Blacksburg, Va.

SHIBLEY: It's like...

RATHOD: A random³ panini.

SHIBLEY: It's inspired by tomato soup and grilled⁴ cheese.

HARRIS: Smells delicious, and it's a signal to Miko that it's his mealtime, too.

SHIBLEY: So he is a vacuum eater, which means that he will just inhale⁵ his food. And it was really bad before we started the study.

HARRIS: The study at Virginia Tech's College of Veterinary Medicine looked at how to keep indoor cats at a healthy weight. They did weekly check-ins and used a special low-calorie high-nutrition food. Dr. Lauren Dodd was a resident in clinical nutrition during the yearlong project.

LAUREN DODD: Yes, we just go ahead and weigh him.

HARRIS: Miko was an ideal candidate - no illnesses and a bit chunky.

SHIBLEY: I used to just kind of, like, share whatever I was eating with him if he wanted it, which was really bad. And throughout the study, he would come up to me and try and take my food. And I felt like a monster because I'd say no.

HARRIS: Megan Shepard, clinical nutrition professor at the vet⁶ school, has heard all about these struggles and knows who usually wins.

MEGAN SHEPHERD: It's not hard to overfeed them with the food is love culture.

HARRIS: Sure, some felines can self-regulate when it comes to food. But most indoor cats need help keeping the pounds off. And this study that was, yes, sponsored by Purina, is testing how best to do that. It starts with an assessment⁷ on the body weight scale. A score of one is emaciated⁸, and nine is obese⁹.

SHEPHERD: And there are pets that leave the scale. We definitely have pets that become a nine plus, plus, plus.

HARRIS: When Shibley and Rathod brought Miko in, they thought he might be a seven. Turned out, he was a nine, a sobering realization¹⁰. First change, saying goodbye to all-day grazing. But cat owners know they have ways of making their needs heard - wailing¹¹ all night or jumping on heads, keeping everyone else from sleeping. One cat in the study ate a whole bag of gluten-free bread in protest.

SHEPHERD: If you have a cat that is, like, screaming for food and yet we still need to keep those calories restricted...

HARRIS: Shepherd says try feeding them vegetables. Yup, one of the biggest takeaways of this study is that cats will and should eat veggies. But Dodd says it's the connection between pets and their people that's the biggest factor in successful weight loss. One woman with a cat in the study decided¹² to diet along with her pet.

DODD: Her cat needed to lose. She needed to lose. And so it was kind of like, you know, that social support where she was able to tell her cat no because if she couldn't eat, cat couldn't eat either.

HARRIS: We checked in with Miko Angelo a few months later, and his new program is working.

SHIBLEY: He tends to beg for food. So he actually might be doing a little bit worse this week because my little sister is visiting, and she's been giving him salmon¹³.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I gave him, like, two little slivers¹⁴ of salmon. And I felt guilty about it. I was like, I know that he's been doing so good. And he's about to be interviewed. And I gave him a treat. But he's so cute. He's got those big eyes.

HARRIS: And we all know what that's like. But for felines and humans, it's not just about losing the weight. It's keeping it off.

For NPR News, I'm Robbie Harris in Blacksburg, Va.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE IN GREEN'S "BLUE WIND")

1 felines   

n.猫科动物( feline的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Any of several felines, such as the cheetah or the snow leopard. 这片地区是濒临灭绝的雪豹的栖息地。 来自互联网
• Search in the basket of life, you will find it, answered Felines. 它在生命的篮子里＂巴思特女神回答道。 来自互联网

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

4 grilled   

adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• He was grilled for two hours before the police let him go. 他被严厉盘查了两个小时后，警察才放他走。
• He was grilled until he confessed. 他被严加拷问，直到他承认为止。

5 inhale   

v.吸入(气体等)，吸(烟)

参考例句：

• Don't inhale dust into your lung.别把灰尘吸进肺里。
• They are pleased to not inhale second hand smoke.他们很高兴他们再也不会吸到二手烟了。

6 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

7 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

8 emaciated   

adj.衰弱的，消瘦的

参考例句：

• A long time illness made him sallow and emaciated.长期患病使他面黄肌瘦。
• In the light of a single candle,she can see his emaciated face.借着烛光，她能看到他的被憔悴的面孔。

9 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

10 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。

11 wailing   

v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱

参考例句：

• A police car raced past with its siren wailing. 一辆警车鸣着警报器飞驰而过。
• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

14 slivers   

（切割或断裂下来的）薄长条，碎片( sliver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Margret had eight slivers of glass removed from her cheek. 从玛格列特的脸颊取出了八片碎玻璃。
• Eight slivers are drawn together to produce the drawn sliver. 在末道并条机上，八根棉条并合在一起被牵伸成熟条。