For the past two days, I’ve been obsessing over what to feed my cats in the wake of the MenuFoods pet food recall. I have fed both my cats Iams dry and wet foods for their whole lives. I thought about changing their food in 2002 when Iams was bought out by Proctor & Gamble, but my older cat is extremely picky, and I didn’t want to try to change her food. I told myself I’d just keep an ear to the ground for news of any change in quality in it, and I’d change then. I guess I have that news now!

So last night my husband and I dashed to Petsmart to buy food. Petsmart’s website promised that they had pulled all “unsafe” food from their shelves, something I didn’t trust a grocery store or general merchandise retailer to do. We bought one 3 ounce can of every wet food that met the following conditions: it was fish flavored (Ms. Picky Kitty only eats fish!), listed fish as the first ingredient, and did not list a grain in the first 4 ingredients. We avoided pouch foods and Iams and Eukaneba brand entirely, because I’m too freaked out by the recall to buy those right now. We bought whatever food met those conditions, regardless of brand.

Now we have several different brands and flavors of wet food, of the highest quality I could buy on short notice, to try out on the kitties. The first one, Pro-plan’s Sardine and Tuna entree in aspic, was a definite hit. It had identifiable little fish bits in it, and it reeked to high heaven (I had my nose pinched and was breathing through my mouth and it still made me gag) — but the cats loved it and eagerly attacked it. As scary as this recall has been for me, it might end up being good for the kitties.

I’ve been trying to research cat food, but it’s very hard. There isn’t a lot of good information available. We have a veterinarian in the family that I might call for help. My cats are fine, but I’m freaked out about the whole thing — the very least you expect from your pet food is that it doesn’t kill your pet!