Morris the Cat’s Second of Nine Pampered Lives : Marketing: Feline’s handlers take the nutritional message across the country, and the promotional fallout, well, that’s just gravy.
The indifferent attitude of the big red cat called Morris is a tender trap of interest for most.
He professes to be a finicky eater. But the girth of this 9-lives spokescat does not indicate that he had turned down much din-din or super-supper. He is, however, a beautiful 14-pound example of a well-cared-for and healthy cat.
His veterinarian, Dr. Laura Pasten, and handler Bob Martwick, who are traveling around the United States with Morris to promote National Cat Health Month, can’t help but chuckle when they look at the huge red tabby who accepts their attention with a stifled yawn.
Without any trepidations that he might not like the environment outside of his large crate, Martwick takes Morris out and sits him on top. There he sits unflinching, eyeing a horde of writers who crowd around to admire him, say hello over and over and all but look foolish trying to impress this absolutely haughty and royally indifferent star.
Martwick, who found Morris in a shelter in New England, is an animal talent scout and handler who has selected the two Morris cats who have represented 9-lives. Both have lived with him as house pets in his home just outside of Chicago. The first Morris became popular in 1969 and he died at age 19 in 1978.
Martwick says it took one year to find the present Morris, who began his career in 1979.
The talent scout won’t divulge completely his secret of how to choose a laid back and totally flexible cat who can ignore the most unusual situations, but he does. And a comfortably adjusted cat won’t stay that way unless he is loved, fed and handled properly. Martwick modestly denies his talent-scouting and cat-care ability, saying that “Morris is relaxed because I feed him constant praise and balanced cat food.”
Pasten says that there “are an estimated 57.5 million pet cats and 49.9 million pet dogs in the United States today and in the four consecutive years that 9-Lives cat food and the American Veterinary Medical Assn. have sponsored the Cat Health campaign to alert cat owners to the importance of medical care and nutrition, a study commissioned by Charles, Charles & Associates revealed that the number of people who take their cats to veterinarians has increased by 16%.”
She advises that cats, more than dogs, will tend to hide their illnesses. Purring and appearing healthy, a cat could be suffering from a serious disease such as leukemia, a virus that attacks the immune system which is preventable by proper vaccinations,” she says. Pasten cites the three most important vaccines as leukemia, rabies and distemper.
Nutrition is equally important. A cat must have a balanced diet, she says, warning that feeding a cat dog food is absolutely wrong. “A cat needs four times more protein than dogs do and they would be deprived on dog food. A cat particularly needs a meat-derived amino acid called taurine. It is necessary for feline vision and without it, a progressive retinal degeneration of the eyes will occur,” she says.
A wise cat owner is one who feeds the balanced foods of major cat food manufacturers who research nutrition for cats.
Prepared cat food that is balanced is more important today than in the past. A cat cannot today safely roam free to obtain necessary nutrients of greens and meats from the wild. And most owners find it too difficult to prepare balanced foods at home. This makes the commercial foods the answer. Pasten, of course, recommends 9-Lives.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Pasten received her degree in veterinary medicine from UC Davis and was the first woman to be selected to internship in the feline health program at Cornell University. She owns and operates her own veterinary hospital in Northern California.
Pasten has written a booklet entitled “Rx: The Morris Prescription,” free upon request from: 9-Lives Booklet, P.O. Box 599012, Chicago, Ill. 60659.
Pasten, Martwick and Morris travel for two campaigns each year, the other being the annual Adopt-a-Cat month of June sponsored by 9-Lives and the American Humane Assn. “with studies revealing that approximately 70,000 kittens are adopted from shelters each year because of this program,” she says.
Martwick won’t tell anyone which shelter Morris was adopted from because of an experience with the first Morris. “After he became famous and I had made no secret of the shelter he came from, I received an incredible number of calls and even registered letters from people telling me that this cat I had rescued belonged to them. Most often the letters would note something like, ‘I had a cat named Lucky and he is now Morris,’ ” he said.
