{"id":4024,"date":"2020-02-19T04:50:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T12:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=4024"},"modified":"2020-02-19T04:50:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T12:50:42","slug":"wild-and-sometimes-crazy-wednesday-your-cats-table-manners-iq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=4024","title":{"rendered":"Wild (and Sometimes Crazy) Wednesday \u2013 Your Cat\u2019s Table Manners IQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"We have two cats with two very different sets of table manners, and I like to think this is a\u00a0 reflection of their background. Sophie is a dream when it comes to manners. She doesn\u2019t beg for food ever. She doesn\u2019t even like to be seen eating. If she\u2019s eating or drinking water when we walk into the room, she\u2019ll stop and move away from her bowl. Oh, she\u2019s always eager to eat, but not so that she becomes a \u201cstumbling block\u201d in the kitchen. She waits patiently in her spot where we feed her as I prepare her plate. She eats really fast. She finishes her meal in less than half the time it takes Lily\"\" to eat. \"\"However, if Lily decides to leave her feeding station and go see what Sophie\u2019s eating, Sophie will walk away from her meal and let Lily have whatever is left. I\u2019d say Sophie is easily bullied and this probably comes from her wild beginnings.<\/p>\n

Sophie lived on the streets\u2014was probably born there. She was just ten-weeks old when a good Samaritan rescued her and we adopted her. I imagine her approach to food was established back when she was a kitten. She had to be on the alert while eating and if a \"\"larger cat came around, she\u2019d better relinquish her food or be hurt.<\/p>\n

Max, our formerly feral snow-shoe-lookalike, used to carry his food away from the bowl to eat it. Our white odd-eye cat, Winfield, used to scoop water and sometimes food out of bowls and eat or drink it off his paw. If you have multiple cats you know there\u2019s more than one way for a \"\"cat to approach his or her meals.<\/p>\n

Lily is obsessed with food! This includes her<\/em> food, Sophie\u2019s food, our food. She can\u2019t seem to get enough food. Anytime she hears cheese of eggs come out of the refrigerator\u2014and believe me she knows the sound\u2014she\u2019s in the kitchen begging. Is this because of Lily\u2019s background?<\/p>\n

\"\"Lily was born in a Volkswagen and moved into an attic with three other families of cats and kittens. There were 15 kittens in all. She may have been the runt of the litter and felt as if she never got enough to eat. Or maybe the kittens suckled from whichever mom was handy at the time and there was a constant fight for a teat. She might have been pushed away from the teat repeatedly by larger siblings and developed a fear that she wouldn\u2019t get enough. Or maybe she was just born a glutton.<\/p>\n

Lily is not overweight, nor is she aggressive. She simply wants to be fed three times a day \"\"with snacks and she seems to feel entitled to everyone else\u2019s meal as well. She\u2019s a bottomless pit\u2014a little piggy, but she is my piggy and I do love her and, I\u2019m afraid, I contribute to her obsession or fixation.<\/p>\n

There are times, however, when I close her out of my office while I eat my lunch. I feel horrible doing that, but she doesn\u2019t seem to mind. When I open the door there\u2019s Lily waiting patiently for me (and my food).<\/p>\n

Because of Lily\u2019s insatiable appetite, and Sophie\u2019s generous nature, we feed the two cats at the same time, but in separate areas where they can\u2019t see each other and we keep an eye on Lily, so Sophie can get her fill.<\/p>\n

How do you handle your multiple cats at mealtime? Here\u2019s a site that explains a little about cats\u2019 eating habits and how they are formed. Interesting stuff.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.vetstreet.com\/our-pet-experts\/strange-eating-habits-in-cats-why-do-they-do-that<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have two cats with two very different sets of table manners, and I like to think this is a\u00a0 reflection of their background. Sophie is a dream when it comes to manners. She doesn\u2019t beg for food ever. She … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4025,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024\/revisions\/4025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}