Hi there Columbus - you sure are lucky to have been able to survive all of your health problems and I am sure your human family is thrilled that you have. I don't know what kind of food you are eating but I have discovered that although vets are very helpful with surgeries etc., they don't always have the best food in their clinics (my own vet told me that VERY LITTLE time in school is spent on nutrition and when my Angel Beyli was diagnosed with CRF she told me to no longer buy food at a vet). A lot of the foods that are prescription diet have fillers (like rice, corn, etc.) instead of meat, and given that cats are carnivores, they need meat and their organs need moisture. The cats (and dogs) gain weight on this food but it isn't healthy weight. So years ago I stopped using foods like Science Diet, Royal Canin, etc. and have been using Wellness, Natural Balance, Evo, etc. (all from the U.S.) - AND it is very important for your cat to have a mainly canned food diet. Cats do not drink a lot of water (unless there is an underlying health issue - so it would be a bad sign for them to constantly drink). They need to get their water from FOOD and there is NO WATER in these industrial vats of dry food (check the ingredients... no meat, no water - nothing that a cat was eating in nature). We read the labels for ourselves to make sure we have healthy ingredients - we need to do the same for our pets or they will pay for it (and we will, with either vet bills or heartache). Just look at the difference between a cat eating good canned food or dry food - they eat the canned food with enjoyment and gusto. How can we take that away from them. My cat went from 18 pounds to a healthy 13 pounds when I put him on mostly canned and quality dry food. And he had less problems with his arthritis also (with the help of Sasha's Blend too).

Long live Columbus.