There are many choices in cat food these days. Just step into a pet store to buy a can or bag of cat food and your mind will be boggled. There are shelves and shelves of cat food to choose from—different brands, different flavors, different styles (pate, chunky, with gravy, etc.). Some people feed a raw diet, some make their own cat food. And we sometimes do a lot of experimenting to find what a finicky cat will eat. Sophie likes pate. Olivia seems willing to try anything, except for when she doesn’t want to eat at all. Sigh! Even though she appears to be chubby, she can go a full day without touching a bite of her canned food. Yes, I free-feed kibbles and sometimes I guess that’s what she prefers, but I want her to eat her canned food
as well.
I feel like an Italian mother chasing my children around the house begging them to eat. But I found a secret weapon recently. Cantaloupe. She will eat a plate of her food if there’s cantaloupe involved. But that’s now—who knows what she’ll decide to eat or not eat tomorrow or the next day? Pumpkin (no spices—just plain pumpkin) is another appetite enticement for 
some cats. I know one cat that adores bananas. Can you imagine?
Tuna juice can also entice a cat to eat his supper. Our cats go crazy for cheese. I don’t think that’s too unusual. But a cat eating tomatoes seems unusual to me. Lily would actually eat a bite of tomato from my 
salad when I wasn’t looking. Olivia seems to want to try peanut butter and I’m afraid she might have a craving for chocolate. We have not 
allowed her to have either of these things, especially the chocolate.
In my research for this article I came across cats that love pizza crust, pecans, asparagus and even lettuce. Well, our cats are crazy for grass, so I guess cats eating lettuce isn’t too weird.
I mentioned chocolate being bad for cats—toxic, actually. Once a friend brought her famous ooey, gooey brownies to share with us and I left them out on the table when I went to bed. Thankfully I remembered and got up to put them away, catching Katy, my beautiful Himalayan, nibbling away at the brownies. Yes, my girl had a chocolate fetish like her mama.
Some cats sometimes live on the edge like Smokey, who used to hide on the highest shelf in the garage or the poor kitty below who’s tail is in danger.
sink, caught sight of some cats that had scurried to the highest point on the sinking ship. He rescued those cats by swimming with them on his back to safety. Here are some amazing photos of that rescue.
Where do we begin? First we must determine and agree upon what is strange behavior for cats. Last week we talked about adventuring cats. Obviously not all cats would enjoy going on a hike or clinging to a surfboard as it rides the waves or even taking a gentle ride in a canoe, but it has been my experience that with each cat comes a particular behavior unlike that of other cats.
them love it at first sip—they even get wet trying to figure out how to use it. Others are a bit standoffish and never actually warm up to it. In fact, one of our cats preferred to drink out of it only when it 
was unplugged. He didn’t like the running water feature. Winfield liked to drink with his paw—stick his paw into the fountain and lick the water off. Then Olivia came along.
fountain running at all times!”
Olivia chews on metal. Not often, but I’ve caught her gnawing on zipper pulls and the spool-holder on my calculator.
in front of me when I’m walking. I guess she’s trying to get my attention. It is a show stopper. And I’ve learned to walk more slowly and cautiously when I know she’s lurking about.
Olivia plays fetch—not when I want to, but when she does. I can toss a toy for hours and she’ll just watch it. But when she feels extra frisky and gets involved in a wild and rowdy game of attack and toss the mouse or other toy, she’ll often eventually bring it to me. She’ll leap onto the back of the sofa where I’m sitting, drop it into my lap, and wait eagerly for me to toss it. She’ll do this over and over. Olivia is my first fetching cat.
Many of you enjoy my photos of Olivia, the tiny calico we adopted from a local shelter when she was three months old. Well, she turned ten months this week. What an interesting and fun adventure it’s been—delightful and frustrating all at the same time. We adore her. She has brought us a great deal of laughter and joy, but we’ve had few kinks to work out.
experienced—calicos can be obstinate, stubborn, quirky—maybe a little crazy at times—and some of the most affectionate and fun cats around. What’s an example of her quirky behavior? She attacks the walls in the hallway emitting a shrill chirp that 
makes you think she’s being attacked by a swarm of bees or an army of fire ants. She sounds like some exotic monkey swinging from the trees in the jungle. I still leap up from my office chair to make sure she’s okay when I hear that going on. Yeah, she’s fine—just playing, I guess.
She’s sturdy and has a sort of cobby body, but she’s tall—oh my is she tall. She has tried for weeks to reach the valance on the large window in the living room. I don’t have curtains in there because we have cats—most of our windows have blinds and valances. But last night for the first time, she managed to stretch tall enough to reach the valance and she got her claws stuck—there she was dangling from the 
valance until I rushed to free her. How can we even leave this cat alone at home with only 16-year-old Sophie—I mean once the isolation orders relax more???
There are days when Olivia refuses to eat, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting her growth. She now weighs over ten pounds. The cats do have kibbles to nibble on—we free-feed kibbles. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are days when Olivia prefers kitten kibbles to her canned kitten food.
She can be as flighty and aloof as any formerly feral cat—and she will even hide from us. She has hiding places in this house that we can’t even imagine. We joke that she levitates. Seriously, there are times when we call and call for her—we look everywhere for her—suddenly she just appears—as if from thin air. It’s sometimes so eerie, it borders on a 
supernatural occurrence.
I just read a fun article about how similar cats and horses are. In my Klepto Cat Mysteries, Rags, the starring cat, is great friends with the starring horse, Peaches. And that isn’t totally unusual. Our family used to own and ride horses. One of my daughters continued in this sport and she often talks about the barn cats—cats that are attracted to the horses at the stables where she keeps her horses. The cats are, for the most part, welcome because they keep the rodent population down. Some of them also become company for the horses. Some take advantage of the horses, like the kitten in this photo curled up in the pony’s tail keeping warm one early morning. But the pony doesn’t seem to
mind.
I just received the cutest crocheted cat from a teenage niece who also creates a variety of other animals, including cows, also dolls, snowmen, etc. Yes, I collect cats—whether I want to or not. Definitely some of them I’ve bought or bartered for myself, like the antique tea pot shaped like a cat and the cat motif overnight bag I couldn’t resist. But most of the pieces in my collection were gifts. In fact, I’m just now starting to call it a 
collection. I didn’t realize how many cat things I had in my house until I started photographing Olivia. I look at the picture I’ve taken and I see cat pillows, throws, vases, books, hanging art, refrigerator magnets, photographs, statues, and jewelry in the 
background. My mouse pad has cats on it, my calendars, my coffee mug, and some of my wall hangings. I even have a toilet brush holder shaped like a cat and a rolling pin with cats cut into it.
We’ve shared stories here of swimming cats and canoeing cats. My Klepto Cat Mysteries include stories of cats riding horses, hiking, and engaging in other outdoor activities. Just last week I watched a cat enjoying a day at the beach with his people. He was most interested in getting to know the resident seagulls.
who seems to enjoy riding his owners shoulders while she ski’s down the slopes. He even wears the latest in goggles and vest. Leon is into stand-up paddle boarding and camping out. He even has his own tiny tent. His owner says his harness hangs near the front door and Leon often tries to put it on himself when he’s eager for an adventure.
This article also gives hints and tips for training your cat to be an adventure cat, but the author warns, this isn’t for every cat, so certainly don’t force the issue. If you believe your cat is up for such adventure, however, there are books to help you properly acclimate him or her. Here’s the link. Enjoy: 
If you’ve followed this blog for long you know I’m fascinated by the vision of cats in windows. I love watching Sophie lay on the windowsill on sunny mornings soaking up the warmth. Olivia will sometimes entertain herself chasing a fly that’s buzzing around at the window. ( Isn’t this a lovely picture of four cats at a window? Sent to me by a Klepto Cat Mystery fan.)
immediately settle at a window where she’d watch them for as long as they were playing on that side of the house.
very successful, since the drops were on the outside of the window.
You know by now how I enjoy carrying my camera while I’m out walking. I often photograph cats. Cats in a window are a favorite of mine, but I have to be careful about aiming a camera toward the window of a random house.
I mention Olivia and use her photos fairly often in my posts and I display her photos on facebook. Yeah, I guess I’m kind of obsessed with her. She’s a wonderful addition to our household. But I didn’t realize how much so until I got my second COVID vaccine. I’m on a shortlist to have just a little more freedom. With out-of-town family having had their vaccines or having had
the virus, we’ve begun talking about the idea of a visit—a real visit with someone we’ve missed, but then I thought of Olivia. How in the world can I leave her? She’s accustomed to having both of us here 24/7 at her beck and call, so to speak. Her meals and treats are dispensed right on time every day, she’s free to hunker down in a closet away from us and Sophie or she can hang close. There’s always a lap available to curl up in and an eager 
across the street and who also love cats.
wondering what in the heck I’ve been doing—walking all over the house calling for her. She never changes up her routine at treat time—oh no. She can turn up her nose at her food and she often does (only to return when we’re not looking to eat it). But she loves her treat so much she’ll do practically anything to get it, including reach into Dennis’s pocket where she knows he’s kept a small piece to surprise her with later.
She sleeps more during the day—I figure she’s going through a growth spurt. What? She already weighs at least 2 pounds more than the average 9 month old female cat.
