Just say NO to those puppy dog eyes
Our busy lives are to blame for the rise in pet obesity. But we can help reverse the trend...
LIke all vets, I have seen many, many fat animals but Mogsy the moggie is the most memorable. enormous, he tipped the scales at over 10 kg, which is classified as morbidly obese.
He had been taken to a vet friend of mine to be put to sleep: not for health reasons, but because he’d become aggressive and attacked his owner.
Thankfully for Mogsy, the vet was able to persuade the owner to give him a chance and try weight loss instead. But the miraculous part of the story is that once his bulk was sufficiently reduced, Mogsy’s behaviour reverted to how he’d been before: amiable and affectionate. The owner was utterly delighted.
So it seems it’s not just humans who feel miserable when we’re carrying too much weight. Mogsy highlights yet another reason why it’s so important to keep our pets fit and healthy. MONTHLY WEIGH-INS
AS We saw in Saturday’s paper, pet obesity is a real problem with up to half of dogs and cats now classed as overweight or obese. Busy lives, lack of exercise, guilt and human nature all play a part, but we’ve also started viewing fat animals as normal and this needs to change.
The easiest way to tackle obesity is to avoid it in the first place. This may sound simple, but many owners have no idea what their pet weighs, how much food to give or what food might suit its age and lifestyle.
Regular weighing of your pet is useful for you and your vet. The minute you start to see the dial creeping up, you can act before it gets out of hand.
Also, with dogs, popping in to the vets to be weighed can help your dog feel more at ease at the surgery. Cats and small animals can be weighed at home. Try and do it monthly. WHY MULTIPLE MEALS ARE KEY
BuT what if you’re too late and your pet is already overweight? The good news is, weight loss for pets is far easier than you might think. After all, we are in control of almost everything that goes into our pets’ mouths; there’s no question of them having to resist the biscuit tin like we do.
You may feel guilty reducing portions — particularly if they give you those pleading eyes — but there are many ways to help with this. I guarantee that you and your pet will be over the moon with the difference.
Firstly, talk to your vet or vet nurse about diet food. Virtually all practices run weight clinics. It’s dangerous to simply cut rations at home as your pet will be hungry and malnourished.
Specific diet foods are made to help your pet feel fuller for longer. If you can afford tinned or sachet versions all the better, the water content helps satiety. If not, add water to your pet’s food.
Some animals, usually cats, might not like it but if they do, then all well and good. Feed them several meals a day. Traditionally, we often give one or maybe two meals a day but this isn’t necessary. Split your dog’s daily ration into four meals if you can. As for cats, they evolved to eat between ten and 20 small meals a day!
Feeding cats one big meal is not what nature intended. Obviously you’re not going to feed them ten times, but with automatic, timer feeders you can easily split their food into five or six meals.
Splitting meals helps your animal feel full even if the individual portions look small. MOGGIES ON THE MOVE
CAlORIeS in, calories out is the mantra we all know and it’s the same for pets. Food makes the biggest difference, but exercise is also important.
Get your dog out more, you’ll benefit from it, too. Go for a walk rather than just standing in a field throwing a ball. Get toys for your cat and play with them. We’re used to seeing kittens tearing about like loonies. Adult cats love to play, too, but don’t get the chance. It is trickier to shift weight from cats than from dogs Try puzzle feeders, which come in all sorts of shapes and sizes — balls with holes that drop kibble as it’s nudged around or feeders that make them work with their paws to get the food. These puzzle feeders can help to slow down food consumption and add stimulation, too. ensure you show your pet how to use them, otherwise they’re likely to get frustrated and hungry. About a third of small pets like rabbits and guinea pigs are also obese, often because they don’t have enough space to exercise and we feed them too much concentrated food.
Rabbits and guinea pigs should have unlimited access to hay or fresh grass ( not clippings) and only need a small amount of nuggets. Giving them more space and offering opportunities to dig, hop, run and explore will not only help with weight loss but make them much happier, too.
We all love our pets and treating them with food makes us feel good but, you will kill them with kindness. Being overweight can knock two years off your dog’s life. It might seem daunting, but the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see a slimmer, healthier and happier pet.
a handsome World War ii pilot, was in a plane crash and suffered terrible burns.
Her mother went through with the wedding, but in the book, Jenny describes her father as a ‘disfigured and traumatised husband’. Four years later her mother left him because of his philandering.
Her mother remarried and had another daughter, Paula, whom she took back to England, leaving Jenny and her two siblings in Kenya with their father. (Sister Pattie was away at boarding school.)
When Jenny said goodbye to her father six months later, she didn’t know she wouldn’t see him again for 40 years. (it wasn’t until she reconciled with her father in her 50s that she learned that after they had left Africa, he had no idea where they were living; he hadn’t deliberately abandoned her.)
in London, it was Pattie who provided Jenny’s gateway to Sixties counterculture. Aged 17, Pattie, working as a model, landed a small role in The Beatles film A Hard day’s night, where she caught the eye of george Harrison.
Jenny says george was kind and nurturing: ‘ To me, he was always like a kind older brother.’ He and Pattie ‘were my first steadying influence in what had been a disruptive upbringing’.
Even though it was the height of Beatlemania, Jenny says she was never star-struck, but remembers her younger sister Paula hiding behind the sofa, plotting to cut off a lock of george’s hair to show her schoolfriends. JEnnY
was just 15 when Mick Fleetwood, then a 16year- old musician in the band The cheynes, spotted her. ‘He saw me walking to school and, although we’d never spoken, he said he was sure i was the person he would end up marrying.’
When they did first meet, he was dating her friend. So although she was attracted to the softly spoken drummer, she dated his mate roger Waters ( pre- Pink Floyd fame) instead. it was roger who got Jenny into modelling after she left school at 16. He was decorating the new carnaby Street showroom for fashion designers Foale and Tuffin and suggested she apply to be their house model.
The editor of Vogue happened to be friends with the designers and selected Jenny for a photoshoot for Vogue’s sister magazine, Brides.
She and Pattie caused a stir on a ‘British Fashion invasion’ to new York, modelling Mary Quant and on their return, photographer of the moment david Bailey shot the now-famous sisters for Vogue.
When her relationship with roger ended, she and Mick Fleetwood reconnected. They hung out with Pattie and george at exclusive clubs such as The Scotch of St James, ‘exciting places filled with pop stars, fashion designers, old aristocracy, models, everyone that was part of this young, hip Swinging London scene’.
it was Jenny who would break off their relationship, pretending she had a new man. Mick was distraught and held a candle for Jenny for years.
By 1968 Jenny had given up modelling and was working for the Beatles’ store The Apple Boutique. it was there that she met Scottish singer donovan, who wrote that famous ballad with its lyrics, ‘ Jennifer Juniper, lilacs in her hair/ Is she dreaming? Yes, I think so/Is she pretty? Yes, ever so.’
‘He declared love,’ she smiles. But she wasn’t tempted.
And anyway, george had offered to pay for her and Pattie to accompany The Beatles to india to study meditation with indian mystic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Life at the ashram was idyllic, even though the Maharishi was clearly a bit of a fraud (and a serial flirt who made ‘ somewhat inappropriate advances’).
They took drugs (mostly dope and LSd) for spiritual enlightenment, Jenny argues, not just to get high. ‘it was so innocent in the 1960s. But how decadent it became in the Seventies.’
Back in London, she and Pattie started an antiques stall (called Juniper) on the King’s road.
Mick, who was now in Fleetwood Mac, got back in touch, proposing to her by letter. She was flattered but never replied, instead moving to north Wales to live off-grid with another boyfriend. With no heating or plumbing, it was a nightmare, and she was relieved when Mick drove up to rescue her. A few days later she accepted his proposal, and they were married in 1970.
Everything seemed perfect. She was 23 and soon gave birth to daughter Amelia, followed by Lucy two years later.
By then Fleetwood Mac had bought a mansion in Hampshire, where they all lived. She often stayed there looking after her baby daughters while Mick toured. But the band always came first.
‘i was quite introverted so it was very hard voicing what i wanted as a person,’ says Jenny. ‘i think that did represent many women at that time, because that’s how our mothers had taught us to be.’
When they went to live in LA, Jenny began to use alcohol as a prop to cope with shyness and
Mick’s emotional distance, and would occasionally take cocaine.’
As she recalls: ‘Having a relationship with a musician, the band is first. it’s the mistress. So what does it feel like if you know you and the family are not number one?’
Tired and neglected, she had an affair with Bob, a musician who joined Mick’s band for a tour.
The tour was cancelled, Bob was sacked and he and Jenny returned to England. one chilling moment, Bob said to her: ‘Mick might have had the power to chuck me out of the band, but i have his wife in my bed.’
it was a wake-up call. She telegrammed Mick, asking to try again. But Mick was no saint, either. He was increasingly reliant on cocaine, and Jenny says she never knew who he would decide to come home to — her, or Stevie nicks, or one of the other women he was seeing.
They divorced, then remarried in 1976, but split again six months later, divorcing in 1978. By then her elder sister Pattie had left george for Eric clapton. clapton wrote the classic love song Layla for Pattie, but he would turn out to be a drinker and a womaniser.
in the book, Jenny recounts going to stay with them in the hope of ‘finding some solace, to be with my sister, walk in the woods’, only to discover the couple drunk and volatile. clapton even tried to seduce Jenny to pique Pattie. But the sisters’ bond couldn’t be broken.
She admits she didn’t know how to be alone, and married musician ian Wallace, a drummer for Bob dylan, in 1984.
on honeymoon in Hawaii, a heartstopping moment changed her life. She, ian and friends went for a swim after taking synthetic mushroom pills. in her deranged state she believed she could breathe underwater and almost drowned. Shivering on the beach afterwards, ‘i became aware of the haze i’d lived my life in, and the need to do something productive.’
She joined a drug and alcohol prevention team, gained an MA in counselling psychotherapy and worked at the Sierra Tucson Treatment centre in Arizona, one of America’s leading rehab clinics.
When in 1992, she moved back to London, ian stayed in LA. She was 45 and ready to be single for the first time. THroUgH
studying psychotherapy she realised that she had spent 30 years in codependent relationships.
‘if you’ve been brought up in an environment with an emotionally and physically absent father, do you bring that into [ future] relationships? Mick was physically and emotionally absent most of the time, so it was like replicating what was familiar.’
But life was about to deal her a surprise. in 1995 she and a friend booked a walking holiday. And she met david.
‘My life with david is completely different to my years in the rock ’n’ roll world, not only because he comes from a different environment — dependable and steady — but because i’m older now and feel more connected to who i am,’ says Jenny.
She’s thrilled her grandson Wolf, 25, an actor, will be introducing her on stage during her memoir’s publicity tour. ‘it will be interesting for him interviewing his rock ’n’ roll grandmother!’
With david by her side, she can take on anything. ‘i feel the older i get, the more i’m getting the hang of this thing called life,’ she smiles.