My Fat Cat’s Food Fights
Now, people have made comments about how big Mochi is, but I certainly wouldn’t use fat to describe him. He is a little pudgy around the middle, but he is nothing compared to some of the other cats I’ve seen. Plus, I thought we were doing pretty good about monitoring how much he eats.
Of course, there are the days that he manages to get a hold of people food. Like the time I was chopping up carrots for stew. One slice fell on the floor. Mochi, not one to pass up something that might be edible, nibbled on the slice while I finished prepping the stew. When I went to pick up what I had dropped, I discovered that he had successfully eaten half the slice before deciding that this kind of people food most certainly wasn’t worth the effort.
Then there was the time that K and I were eating dinner. I typically finish much faster than he does, partly because I like to just eat and be done so that I can move on to some other activity, and partly because K only takes bites in between playing video games or watching a movie. This particular day was a video game day. I had finished my food, but left both our plates on the dinner tray since his plate was still half full. I went to the bedroom to get a project, but got a little distracted on the computer, but returned only a few minutes later. When I went back out to the living room, K was in deeply engrossed in his game and his plate was empty. Now, K can really put food away when he puts his mind to it, but still, I was a little baffled as to how he finished half a chicken breast while playing his game. So, I couldn’t help but comment. “Wow. You finished that whole piece of chicken? That was fast.”
He looked from his game to his plate, then gave me a look of complete confusion. “I didn’t eat it. You put it away, right?”
“Did you see me put it away? I’ve been in the bedroom.”
“Then where did my chicken go? It was right here.”
Please understand, by right here he meant literally about two inches away from his elbow. Of course, knowing that Mochi has a proclivity to try to snatch food off of our plates when we aren’t there to see him, I naturally started looking around, but I didn’t really believe that the cat had taken it. After all, K was right there; he would have seen the cat taking food off a plate that is right under his own nose.
The cat was only a couple of feet away, liking an empty spot on the hardwood floor. I’m guessing the spot still smelled a bit like the chicken he had just wolfed down. When he saw us glaring at him, he took off running. I laughed until tears came to my eyes, and poor K just sat there with his jaw hanging down, dismayed at losing his dinner and embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed it happening.
Last week, K had a few days off of work and agreed to take the cats to the vet for their yearly check up. Mochi had gained a little weight since last year, and so the vet suggested making him exercise to get his food. I liked the idea, thinking that it would also keep him occupied while his sister finished her food. She eats much slower than he does, sometimes not even finishing her allotment, which is part of the reason why Mochi is overweight to begin with…he finishes her leftovers.
The first day I tried this with him, I tossed a piece of his food into the dining room. He chased after it, picked it up, and brought it back to me. Yes, my cat plays fetch with his food. (Actually, this is sort of a normal behavior for him–he plays fetch with the little kitty soccer balls we have for him.)
The second day he caught on a bit better. He chased down his food and ate it. You could see some sort of primal instinct awakening in him, watching him run and pounce, capturing each piece and making sure it was dead before munching away on it. When I put his bowl down for him to finish eating the rest (because, honestly, I get a little bored of throwing all of his food and waiting for him to eat it when my own cereal is sitting there getting soggy), he refused to come and eat. Instead, he sat in the doorway of the kitchen, muscles ready to leap as soon as I threw the next bite. He wasn’t ready for the game to end…eating food out of a bowl was just mundane now.
Then, the third morning, I threw his first piece of food, and he watched it sail past him. Then he slowly turned his head towards me with a look that spoke volumes, a look that said, “You really expect me to chase that down and then eat it. Puhlease!”
Part dog, part human, one hundred percent CAT!
September 12, 2009
Posted in: Life
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