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Our cat, Tuxedo, is fat, old and lazy. Scott thought that a positive motivational message would inspire him. See if it works

Tuxedo Gets Motivational Message

Go Tuxedo! Our old, lazy cat could use some motivation to catch rats on the property. Scott thought that posting this motivational poster might do the trick.

Scott's father sent Scott an email today. Attached were a bunch of great animal photos, many of which were amazing, fast-action shots. Scott loves animals!

Isn't Rachel is always saying, "Scott should have been a veterinarian?"

One of the photos, in particular, caught Scott's eye and he thought it might motivate our cat, "Tuxedo". He's a neutered, 17-year-old cat that lays around the house and is only keen on dinner, a warm lap or geting petting, than catching mice.

Scott moused his way over to Big Huge Labs and within 60 seconds - OKAY, more like 10-minutes because he had to tweak the fonts and colors - came up with this motivational poster.

For more about the motivational poster, Tuxedo's reaction and to see the 30 other great animal photos, carry on ...

Cussy Pat Poster

Knoshing - Tuxdeo the Slob-ovian, eating the cat equivalent of kibbles out of his dry food bowl, with his shiny new dining room motivational artwork. The message font is a tad small, but hopefully he'll get the message!

"Do we have any spare 8x10 frames?" Scott asked Rachel.

"Yeah," said Rachel, "We've got a whole box of them in our upstairs closet."

"In the banana box?" yells Scott, from upstairs.

"No, in the other closet, along the wall, past the shoe rack," shouts Rachel.

Even though it's been two and a half years since we moved from Edmonton to Vancouver Island, we still have lots of stuff stashed in cardboard boxes. (Scott makes a mental note to unpack some of this stuff, but then decides not to, knowing we lack storage space and a box is - at least - neater than anything else he can think of, off the top of his head.)

Putting Tuxedo's new motivational poster in an appropriately black frame, Scott mounts it just above the cat's food bowl.

"There," he says, "Do you think he'll get the message?"

Rachel comes out from the kitchen and dutifully looks at the cat-oriented artwork, hung about 8 inches off the baseboard, above the messy area known as 'Tuxedo corner'.

"Uh, honey," she says, sarcastically "I'm pretty sure that he'll be oblivious to the picture and won't get the message."

Scott thinks that Rachel isn't took keen on the whole "cat artwork" thing, but manages a good comeback.

"Yeah," he says, "I should have made the message font a tad larger."

While Tuxedo isn't too interested in catching mice, he does love to lord over the garden area, just off the patio. It his 10-foot by 20-foot dominion, the only place on our 5-acre property that he's claimed as "his". It's thick with bushy ground-cover and just the sort of place that garter snakes, voles and other small creatures love to hang out.

On a sunny day, Tuxedo will sit for hours, ears pricked for the slightest movement of a leaf or branch, eager to pounce on whatever is making the disturbance. To Tuxedo's credit, he has managed to capture a couple of shrews, but we don't know if he's ever captured a snake and he'd probably run if he saw one of the large Norway rats that abound in the chicken run.

Tuxedo used to weigh about 16 pounds - he was a big boy - and that's partly how he got the nickname, "Big Guy". Age is taking its toll on the Big Buy however, as he'd gradually slowed and he isn't nearly as active as he used to be. Food, nap and lap are his main hobbies now, unless the sun is out, then he's into lolling in the sunshine (technically, that's still in the 'nap' department).

Hopefully, our aging, torpid cat will derive some motivation from his new dining room artwork - Lord knows we've got lots of rats that he could sink his teeth into - if he just got off his fat lazy arse and could make it as far as the chicken coop!

Go Tuxedo, go!