Purrsonality Spotlight: Stephanie Kalina-Metzger and Eggbert
One of my favorite parts of hosting the CatCrazy Channel has been meeting members of the cat community and hearing about your amazing felines. We love cats deeply and the lengths we go to to provide them with happy and healthy lives knows no bounds. Recently, Stephanie Kalina-Metzger reached out to share her experience with Eggbert, his diabetes diagnosis, and how she turned their weight loss journey into a children’s rhyming picture book. It is both beautiful and insightful—highlighting the dangers of overfeeding our cats. I knew I had to share this wonderful book with other cat lovers. So, here’s my first CatCrazy Purrsonality Spotlight Q&A. Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing your story and inspiring this series.
Tell me a bit about the process of creating and publishing your book.
I had some real challenges getting the book finished. I decided to hire an illustrator on Fiverr. One day she was from London, the next day she said Pakistan, and in the end, it took six months to get it finished only to be told by others that it was AI. On top of that, the layout wasn’t right—the page sizes were all different. So I had to hire yet another person to fix the layout. I have an additional book coming out later about a different rescue cat that I own and will definitely use what I have learned.
What was the hardest part of getting Eggbert to slim down?
We had one other cat too, so what we had to do, in addition to playing with Eggbert, was to use a baby gate to confine him to our family room and our kitchen. He was too fat to jump it, so it worked out well, other than me almost breaking my neck while stepping over the gate in heels once.
I parceled out the food a little at a time, but he meowed every time I would walk to the kitchen and it made me sad to withhold food from him, but I knew I had to do it or he would need to resume insulin. The problem with the insulin is that one night he hypoed and convulsed. Evidently, the insulin dosage became a little too much as he lost weight and if you’re not a vet, it’s hard to do both (get the weight down and adjust the dosage accordingly), so we swore off the insulin after we braved a snowstorm to get Eggbert to the emergency vet.
What is your background?
I’m a tutor and a freelance writer.
What made Eggbert more special for you than any other cat at the shelter?
I believe an ad was placed in the paper, so we sort of arrived on the scene sight unseen. We loved him immediately—he was so friendly! The lady who had him said that his brother was adopted already and the names attached to the box that was dropped on her doorstep were “Sneakers” and “Hot Wheels,” so evidently kids owned the cats. I don’t know why they were abandoned. Could have been a move, or anything.
I was a fan of the Flintstones when I was a kid and there’s an episode where Fred and Barney are skipping work to watch wrestling live. What happened is that a woman’s child crawled into the ring and she was yelling, “My poor Eggbert” when Fred and Barney jumped into action and swooped him up out of the wrestling ring. I always thought that was a funny name, so I named the funny, fat cat Eggbert. It suited him.
In the United States, a 2022 survey by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP) found that 61% of cats are overweight or obese. So if your feline has a few (or many) extra pounds, you’re not alone. Consider using this Cat Calorie Calculator from cats.com to identify the ideal number of calories your cat should consume daily. Remember, feeding guidelines on food labels are recommendations and not exact.
Want to be featured in a future Purrsonality Spotlight? Email me or message me on social media. I can’t wait to hear from you!