So, I have three pets. Do I want three pets, no, but I have a soft heart, so I have three pets. These pets include the frequently mentioned Curtis, along with Rami and Angelou. The latter two are cats. Rami (the one in the back) is older but smaller. Angelou is younger, thinner, and larger. Neither one is particularly large and the weight differential is minimal.
Anyway, the point of this blog post, and it does have one, is not to tell you about my having too many pets, it is to tell you about a daily experience I have with the cats.
Every morning I give the cats some wet cat food as a treat. They are very excited about this and Angelou meows piteously about the situation. These meows will continue until I provide the wet food or go up to my office. If I return downstairs and go anywhere near the wet cat food table, the meows begin again. Sometimes, later in the day, even though the cats have had the wet food, the meows occur again, but they are not as pitiful and I can ignore them. Rami does not meow. She waits patiently on the table.
Every morning, once I provide the food, I listen to the older cat growl at the younger cat as they share this tiny bowl of food. But they share it. One eats for a bit while the other watches, then they switch.
Sometimes I split the food evenly into two bowls, but the cats still insist on sharing the same bowl of food while the older cat growls grumpily at the younger cat and they go back and forth eating and watching. Then, once they are done with the first bowl of food, they move to the second one and do the same thing. Sometimes, Rami, in her rush to eat her share of the food, literally makes herself sick. On those occasions a portion of the food ends up in no one’s tummy, but instead ends up a source of irritation for me. As a result, I am forced to limit the intake of both cats, because Rami doesn’t know when to stop.
Sometimes, as I listen to those yowls and watch this behavior, I feel this situation somehow might reflect some of the cases I read about from time to time. Yes, there might be two equally filled bowls, but dammit, I want to eat from that bowl right now and will make a lot of noise until you let me have it. Screw the other bowl until I am ready for it. I will also eat so much that I will become ill and I don’t care if that means no one gets the food.
What conclusion can I draw from this behavior? Perhaps everybody should just stop yowling and go to their own bowls.