The Package

I love the POST PERSON who brings all the fun stuff in the mail. I wait anxiously for the sound of her (sometime it is a his) truck then I get all excited when I hear it. Then there is the best sound in the world, the DROP of the MAIL. I loves loves loves it! Mommy #2 says she is not such a fan of mail these days. She gets lots of mail, she says, but it is mostly BILLS that she has to pay. That does not seem like much fun.

So last week I was listening to our mailperson when I heard an especially delicious sound - the PLOP of a box! A box! That could only mean ONE THING:
Chewy.com



From Time to Time I am asked to review products for a business. In exchange for my opinion I receive free stuff. The reviews are my honest appraisal of the item , and are not necessarily good in some cases. This is a great benefit for me because there are many things my Mommy #2 would like to try but does not have the extra $$$ to spend on "experiments."

So, as we say in the BLOG biz: I received free product for the sake of this review. The opinions are my own and I was not otherwise paid to tell you about them.

I ran, ran, ran out of the room to wait by the door for Mommy to open it. When she did, this is what I saw. . .

I don't know if you can see it, but it says Sunshine Hamilton!

Wha' in the WORLD is going on? I stammered.

Now Noodles, said Mommy. Sometimes it is nice if Sunshine gets a chance to try something new. Especially since she is so picky and it is SO hard to find a food she likes.

The package contained 3 little pouches of food called Platefulls. It is like canned food only FRESHER and more natural.


Hmmm. Looked interesting - sorta. Sunshine will like it ONLY if it is more like DOG food than CAT food. She totally SCARFS my food if I don't hoover it down immediately.




Also inside the package were some special things for MOMMY only. She smiled a lot at that. Could be coupons and stuff. . . I dunno. She smiles at funny stuff.

So here is the legal mumbo-jumbo about Platefulls food by Natural Balance (Hey! I like their stuff. I eat it on occasion. . . the dog kind, that is):

Key Benefits

• Complete and balanced for all breeds of adult cats
• Cats love the taste!
• Grain Free formula 
• Great For Skin & Coat
• Enriched with vitamins and minerals
• No Corn, Soy, Wheat, Artificial Flavors Or Colors
• Convenient pouches are easy to open
• Can be served as a standalone diet or as a topper for dry food
• Made in the USA!

So that all looks good, huh? It is also by some DUDE called Dick Van Patten. He is this HOLLYWOOD type that now makes animal food. . . kinda like Ellen Degeneres' HALO and Rachel Ray's NUTRISH. I think you have to have a cutesy name if you are a celebrity in the pet food biz.

They have many many flavors, as well. SO if Sunshine that extra PICKY cat does not like the one we have - well maybe we could sometime try another flavor. We'll See, I thought.

I needn't have worried, though. This is a picture of 

Sunshine the Cat doing something we seldom see her doing at dinnertime - obsessively eating what is in her bowl. She never does this. She normally jumps up and takes a look. . . then she jumps down and takes a bath. Then she jumps up to her bowl again and takes out ONE ORT and eats it. Then she proceeds to do the same thing for the next 5 minutes - take out one ORT and eat it. Then she jumps down and goes to stare out the window. She repeats this FOR HOURS before she finishes ONE MEAL.

Not so with PLATEFULLS. She stood there and chowed for a solid 15 minutes - until every drop of gravy and morsel of food was gone. GONE as in bowl-licked-clean gone.

Mommy repeated the feeding for the next 2 nights and Sunshine did the same thing every night - scarfed her food like a PUG!!! Mommy considered it quite a success.

The only issues Mommy had with Platefulls were

1. The GRANDE portion size. You are supposed to feed one 3oz pouchfull for every 5 pounds of weight. That means Sunshine the Cat should have eaten 2 pouches. If she did that, she would soon LOOK LIKE A PUG in addition to eating one. She has HUSKY tendencies.
2. The Smell - maybe not too much for most humans, especially if your Dogs, Cats, and Pugs are fed RAW or almost RAW foods. But for a veghead like my Mommy - it was a little too fishy and gamey for her. I think that is her problem.

Other than that, she thought PLATEFULLS represent another FINE product provided by CHEWY.COM.

So was the experiment a success? Well YES. It was. Sunshine ate like she NEVER eats and that is a plus. The food was fresh looking and smelling which is always a plus AND not so full of preservatives that she would worry about my sisteroid's health (she is getting on in years, you know). In fact, she HINTED that SOMEkitty might be getting PLATEFULLS in her stocking this Christmas. I guess Mommy has an IN with SANTA?

Thank you Chewy.com for providing us with the opportunity to do this experiment. I am a little PEEVED that it wasn't all about ME because I consider you MY TERRITORY and we all know how PUGETTES get with their TERRITORY!!

Just keep THAT in mind. . .