A goodly portion of my social media posts for the last week have had to do with Minnie, the cat I mentioned in last week’s blog post who I adopted from outside. She is doing very well, now, having been spayed and vaccinated and finally given full access to the house. I think she is finally settling in, and is a little less panicked about such things as where people are going, the presence of other animals and the sort.
She is very fond of blankets and beds, and is already an expert snuggler. She has decided that Leah, my older cat, is going to be her best friend and is happy to follow Leah around the house. She tries to groom Leah and then snuggle. This is received only partly well; the affection is tolerated, but not encouraged by my other cat. Still, the hissing has stopped and they are now existing together reasonably well.
All is working out.
Except for one thing.
Minnie is a very small cat, and having lived outdoors for her entire life up until this point, she has been beaten up and chased away from food by other cats (and also likely racoons and possums, since they like to go after the cat food, too). I have a feeling that Minnie was surviving by any means necessary, including eating garbage and stealing just about anything she could get. As a result, she has a very confused attitude towards food.
She has finally figured out that she will always get fed, that there will be food provided to her at certain times of the day. However, her instinct is to just get as much as she can and run away before anyone else comes to bother her. (Namely, she freaks out if the dog gets too close to her while she’s eating.) She also goes after any food source she can get, whether or not it is in her bowl. I’ve had to put Leah’s food somewhere else so that Minnie doesn’t eat it all (Leah just grazes throughout the day, rather than scarfing it down, so we leave food out for her all the time. The dog is the same way.)
With the dog food, however, I figured that the pieces were too big for Minnie, the tiny cat, to eat, so I left the bowl out where the dog can find it like usual. Of course, I hadn’t counted on Minnie’s absolutely persistent desire for anything edible. So last night, I was checking on things to make sure that all was okay and I went out to the kitchen, where the dog’s bowl is. I found Minnie walking away from the bowl with a massive piece of kibble in her mouth. Upon spotting me, she froze, dropped the food, and then walked casually away as if she hadn’t been doing anything at all.
Thief!
I had to move the bowl out of the way for the night so that no more midnight antics could take place. Our training on not eating everyone else’s food will resume today by means of a spray bottle with water in it. She learns very quickly, but I have a feeling that this will be one of the more difficult lessons to instill in this adorable cat. Luckily, I have a bowl on the way that will keep Minnie out of Leah’s food. I’m sure we’ll figure out the dog’s food situation.
Probably.
I’m very pleased to have found Minnie and beena ble to help her, but honestly, I had forgotten how crafty cats can be when the want something. We’ll work on it. And either she will get trained, or I will. Likely the latter, as that’s just the way of things.
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