Please Play

I had a customer come into the store today.
Searching for a solution to get their cat to play with cat toys.
As they had tried a variety of different toys from simple to complex, to get their cat to play with because the kitty is overweight and needs to loose said weight.

Only...for the cat to show no interest in any of the toys.

And this was setting off the customer's anxiety because their kitty is their service animal, and they didn't want to lose their companion and didn't want to feel like a bad cat owner because their kitty was overweight and wasn't losing it.

So the customer wanted suggestions on what else they could do to get their cat to lose the weight.

*exhales*
It was a difficult solution really.
Because the customer had literally tried every. single. type. of. toy. 

To only have the cat stare at them and then to the owner with a "you expect me to do what?' expression.

And it was stressing out the customer that the cat wouldn't play with toys.

A solution was made even more difficult to come to because the customer themselves has a restriction on how long they can stand, how much they can move, how much they can lift.

So really it has to be the cat's own prerogative to play because the owner doesn't have the ability to do long term play with the cat. 

Other issues, besides being overweight, include that a) the kitty is older. 8 years at least b) has lost most of it's teeth and c) is on a special diet. 

It was one of those conversations....where I'm not sure I helped at all.
I asked if there was things the kitty liked to play with or eat.
Because those could possibly be used as an enticement to play, instead of just sitting around all day.

To which the customer said that the kitty loves Cat Grass.
So I suggested maybe putting toys in a container with some cat grass to get the scent on them.

And since the kitty has no teeth, she has to eat soft food.
So I suggested maybe making the cat work for the food by placing it on toys or such that she'd have to work to get her food at.

But yah....
I had no idea how to help the customer beyond that.
I mean....cats are fickle creatures. They can be particular about their toys.

And knowing that the cat was steadily getting teeth pulled (as the previous owner hadn't taken good care, and the cat has stage 4 tooth decay) ....I told the customer it may just be a wait and see thing.
Because if the cat isn't feeling good....maybe suffering from aching teeth....she's not going to feel like playing. 
So until they can get her to a stage of feeling better....there may be no interest in toys …..

I hope something helps.
It wasn't fun to see/feel how stressed out the customer was.
Especially because I wanted to help them find an actual solution....
*fingers crossed* that something works. 

-Sarnic Dirchi