Straying Gourmands
As I've shared, here, before, we have befriended a couple of the local stray cats in our neighborhood, whom we have dubbed "Vince" and "Gray".
They have become such a part of our life, and we, such a part of their life, that the cats know our schedule: when I wake up, most days, about 7:30, the cats are sitting near our back door, expecting to be let in, and fed. When I come home from work, some time between 7:30 to 8:30 at night, the cats are there again, expecting to be let in the *front* door, and fed.
The other night, when I got home from work, the kittehs were waiting, and I let them inside the house to be fed. We had run out of the expensive dry food that they like, but I had some cat foot purchased from the 99 Cent store, which I put down for them. Then, I went into my home office to check my email, while they ate.
A few minutes later, Vince (the black and white cat pictured) came into the office, stood up on his hind feet near my chair, and put his front feet into my lap for a moment. Perhaps because he's figured out I'm deaf, this is his way of notifying me that he wants to bring my attention to something -- usually, when he does this, he then walks to the door, signaling that he wants to be let out.
However, this time, he walked into the kitchen, and starred at the cat food bowl. Gray was still there, starring at his bowl, too. (We've had to put down two bowls for them, so that they would quarrel over who gets to eat first).
As I came in the kitchen, both kittehs alternated from looking at the food bowls, where the cheap cat food lay, untouched, and then looking up to me with pleading expressions. The intended communication seemed pretty obvious: "You're NOT expecting us to _eat_ this stuff, are you?"
Their evident displeasure with my offering was so emphatic, that I couldn't help but chuckle.
Fortunately, we have some canned cat food, which we give them occasionally as a treat. I opened the tin, and put 1/4 of the contents in each bowl. While I was doing so, Vince got so excited that he started making vocalizations: not the "meow" of most ordinary cats, but a more high-pitched "EEEeeeeeEE!" sound.
They set too, with enthusiasm (and probably ate some of the cheap cat food which was still lying under that canned food in the process).
Yep -- it seems that, strays though these kittehs are, and dependent as they seem to have become upon us for food, they still have *standards*, and cheap, 99 Cent store cat food doesn't _cut_ it!
Just our luck -- my wife and I both have refined palettes -- and, foodies that we are, we seem to have attracted cats that are *epicurians*!!