I heard her before I saw her. A little kitten, no more than two weeks old, meowing helplessly out of a dark corner in my garage.
Every night I could hear her tiny meow cutting through the sounds of rain and thunder. At the time I was 21 years old and had never cared for a pet in my life. I had no idea what to do, but I took her in and named her Snowball, after the Simpsons' cat that kept "coming back to life."
For the longest time Snowball survived on a diet of the cheapest dry food I could find and stagnant tap water. I didn't know any better and didn't bother to learn. It wasn't until Snowball started shedding hair excessively that I decided to change her food. Slowly but surely, I learned that cats need wet food too, that they are obligate carnivores, that they don't produce taurine on their own but that their bodies need it... I learned to be a better cat mom, and Chumi became a part of that journey.
No matter what medicine or supplement was prescribed to Snowball over her 12 years in existence--syrup via dropper, tablet crushed and mixed in with her food, paste from a tube--I could not get her to eat it.
"I would wrap her in a towel to keep her from scratching and biting while trying to force whatever prescribed vitamin down her throat. It broke my heart to see that I was trying to heal her, but ended up traumatizing her in the process instead. I kept wishing that there was a way to get her to eat the healthy stuff without suffering."
"Was there a way to give her vitamins that she actually liked? Those old chewable Flintstones vitamins my sisters and I would pop like candy as children came to mind. If there was no such thing for cats, then I would create it."
I had a decade of experience in consumer retail, e-commerce and product development, so I figured I knew where to start, after all.
Enter Donna, fellow cat-mom-with-a-problem, and someone who, like me, wanted to do better for her cats. Together, we made Chumi for imperfect cat parents who want to do better for their cats.
My darling Snowball (and her siblings Earl and Sigrid) are the reason I do what I do. You will see that Chumi's 10-in-1 Multivitamin isn't exactly Snowball's favorite (meanwhile, Earl and Sigrid are OBSESSED), and that's okay.
I'll keep doing what I do until I make something Snowball loves. And even if she doesn't, as long as there's a cat that does love Chumi, I can say I've done my job right.
