Hi Friends
Have you ever had one of those days where you just couldn’t be bothered to do anything, eat anything or move about? I just had one. Mum was hovering over me like a hovering thing. I know it’s because she cares about me but sometimes you humans just have to let us be.
Mum was worried because I hadn’t had any breakfast. She tempted me, of course, but I went upstairs to the office. She came up to do her work, but I could feel her looking at me while she typed on that computer thingy. I didn’t turn round. I didn’t want to invite extra kisses or silly voices.
She went down to get her lunch. I heard her talking to Gibbs downstairs and I heard the sachets as they were being torn open. I heard three; one for Gibbs, one for me and one for Clive, the POW from next door (Puss On Welfare). He is a regular visitor to our patio door and Mum never lets him leave without a full belly.
She brought me up some food and went back downstairs again. I heard the scrape of cream cheese on her Rivita crispbreads. They’re meant for people who want to lose weight. We expect the results any year now …
As part of Mum’s weight-loss regime, I often help her. She always saves me a little corner of the crispbread and I lick the cream cheese off. It’s not a lot, I know, but I’m happy to help her in her quest to be able to see her feet again. And she didn’t disappoint me this time. I heard her trudging up the stairs and she sat down on the ottoman and asked if I’d like to lick the cream cheese off the little tiny corners she’d saved for me.
Don’t get me wrong. I tolerate Mum dearly, I really do. And I’ve told her on several occasions, well, once, that I’d go to the ends of the sofa for her, I really would. She told me that she would go to the moon and back but what’s a few inches between a cat tolerating his human and a human who is besotted with the said cat?
Unlike humans, cats do not need three or four meals a day. It’s perfectly safe if we go without a meal now and then. I’m not talking about those horrible humans that deliberately starve their pets; no, this is a different scenario. Sometimes, when we’re out and about, we might chance upon a tasty morsel from Nature’s Larder. Mum isn’t to know, unless we bring home the evidence for her to find the next morning. And sometimes, what we’ve eaten might be just a bit more than we needed to eat so if we’re not jumping up and down waving by the glass panelled door first thing when she gets up, it doesn’t mean we have a life-threatening illness.
Obviously, if we don’t eat for a few days, then perhaps a trip to the vet to rule out the possibility of something – like a virus – but don’t sweat it if we don’t appear hungry. It really is okay and to be honest, it wouldn’t hurt you humans to eat a bit less now and then. Just meowin’.
Till the next time
Casey – still sprawled out on the ottoman with his back to the world.
"In the middle of a world that has always been a bit mad, the cat walks with confidence."
Roseanne Anderson