$62.95 [Automatic Pet Feeder]

At some point during my morning routine, it is 7:30 am. At 7:30 am, depending on the day of the week, I may still be asleep. Or I may be awake in bed, playing with the animals. (We're so happy to see each other when we wake up.) I may be letting the dogs out. Or I may be in the shower. I may be kissing Kyler. I may be headed out the door.

But no matter what else is happening at that moment, at 7:30 am every day, the Petmate LeBistro Portion Control Automatic Pet Feeder deposits 1/4 cup of Wellness Healthy Weight Adult Cat Food into Lola's bowl. And at the sound of the very first few pieces of cat food dropping into the bowl, Lola is off. Jumps from wherever she is, runs full sprint, belly swaying, all the way to the automatic pet feeder. Sometimes she meows during the sprint.

How can we not make fat jokes?

Not amused.

We set up the automatic pet feeder for Lola when we were leaving town for a day and then decided to keep it set up when we returned. It feeds Lola a set amount of cat food up to three times a day. We do the smallest portion, 1/4 cup, twice a day. The portion control seems to be working -- Lola is losing weight. The automatic pet feeder is much a better weight manager than me: it is not tricked by Lola acting like she hasn't ever been fed ever in her whole life, and the automatic pet feeder doesn't give Lola snacks just because she's cute.

And Lola loves this thing, hence the fat kid sprint. On Monday morning, Lola was the only animal in the apartment because we hadn't yet picked up the dogs from boarding after our Chicago trip. She was playing with one of her little catnip mice toys, which she loves, so I started teasing her with the Hartz Tickle Me Feather Cat Toy, which she loves even more. She was going nuts on the feather, sneaking around the coffee table, running on the couch, jumping and panting. And then it was 7:30 a.m. Goodbye, Lola.

Lola's hierarchy:

You may be wondering why the greatest is the automatic pet feeder and not a bag of cat food? It's because Lola doesn't love food as much as she loves the act of being fed. She doesn't even eat all the food -- there is often cat food still in the feeder when the second portion is dispensed in the evening. Lola loves that darn Petmate LeBistro Portion Control Automatic Pet Feeder because it puts the cat food into the bowl and she loves it when the cat food is put into the bowl.

$62.95 to make a fat tabby happy and to be able to leave for a few days without worry. Worth it. Although I will say in the interests of full disclosure that the Petmate LeBistro Portion Control Automatic Pet Feeder is really difficult to program, so if you came to this site via Google search looking for the manual, I got you: the manual is here.