Where do cats get their quirks?
Sep. 21st, 2009 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI'm here at the computer eating lunch. Betty has me under her vigilant watch. What she wants is to lick the plate.
At 5 pm every day, I put down 2 small dishes of wet cat food (a half tablespoon each). They eat and then go somewhere. Usually Travis stays in the living room and Betty goes down the hall.
Sometime later, when I'm finished with my dinner, the minute I hit the kitchen with my dirty plate, there's Betty. She wants what's left. Usually, she just sniffs and goes away. But sometimes she'll lick the plate clean like a dog. If I forget and leave a bone on the plate, she'll grab it and take it off onto the carpet somewhere and just work on it.
Travis could care less.
At about 4:30 - sometimes even way earlier - they both start hovering. On most days, Travis acts like his last meal was in the Bush administration. They do have a large bowl full of dry kibbles at all times.
They follow me into the kitchen at 5 p.m. and make sure that they are positioned together to guarantee that if I even think of moving I will trip over one or both of them - as I get their dinner.
Then, every single night - I'm not kidding, Travis sniffs at the food, maybe takes a lick, and then goes off somewhere and Betty eats both dishes. If she likes whatever it is, she'll lick it clean. If she doesn't, she'll just lick the gravy off.
Betty will plop down anywhere for a nap. In the middle of the hallway, in the middle of the living room. Sometimes on her back crotch open to the world.
Travis will join her sometimes but most often picks one of the three cat beds in the house or my lap or my ottoman. He never is on his back. Sometimes his side. Never his back.
Travis always spends at least part, if not all, of the night with me in bed. He comes and goes but he's there when I go to sleep and there when I wake up - mostly always positioned so that some part of him touches me somewhere or he's in full snuggle.
Betty ONLY comes on the bed when I come back from a middle of the night pee and ONLY if Travis is not there. She'll sit right by my face and touch my nose with her paw and then leave. She does it most every night. It's just weird.
On the very rare occasions when I go lie on the bed it the middle of the day or a nap, they both come with and station themselves on either side of me for the duration.
When they are together, it's because Travis went to Betty and she let him stay there. This is true for naps or for play.
Betty's been here now since 2002 when she was about a year old and Travis came as a kitten about 5 years later - they both came from the same shelter.
I'd better go put this plate on the kitchen floor before Betty files a grievance.
That's Betty on the left and Travis on the right.
At 5 pm every day, I put down 2 small dishes of wet cat food (a half tablespoon each). They eat and then go somewhere. Usually Travis stays in the living room and Betty goes down the hall.
Sometime later, when I'm finished with my dinner, the minute I hit the kitchen with my dirty plate, there's Betty. She wants what's left. Usually, she just sniffs and goes away. But sometimes she'll lick the plate clean like a dog. If I forget and leave a bone on the plate, she'll grab it and take it off onto the carpet somewhere and just work on it.
Travis could care less.
At about 4:30 - sometimes even way earlier - they both start hovering. On most days, Travis acts like his last meal was in the Bush administration. They do have a large bowl full of dry kibbles at all times.
They follow me into the kitchen at 5 p.m. and make sure that they are positioned together to guarantee that if I even think of moving I will trip over one or both of them - as I get their dinner.
Then, every single night - I'm not kidding, Travis sniffs at the food, maybe takes a lick, and then goes off somewhere and Betty eats both dishes. If she likes whatever it is, she'll lick it clean. If she doesn't, she'll just lick the gravy off.
Betty will plop down anywhere for a nap. In the middle of the hallway, in the middle of the living room. Sometimes on her back crotch open to the world.
Travis will join her sometimes but most often picks one of the three cat beds in the house or my lap or my ottoman. He never is on his back. Sometimes his side. Never his back.
Travis always spends at least part, if not all, of the night with me in bed. He comes and goes but he's there when I go to sleep and there when I wake up - mostly always positioned so that some part of him touches me somewhere or he's in full snuggle.
Betty ONLY comes on the bed when I come back from a middle of the night pee and ONLY if Travis is not there. She'll sit right by my face and touch my nose with her paw and then leave. She does it most every night. It's just weird.
On the very rare occasions when I go lie on the bed it the middle of the day or a nap, they both come with and station themselves on either side of me for the duration.
When they are together, it's because Travis went to Betty and she let him stay there. This is true for naps or for play.
Betty's been here now since 2002 when she was about a year old and Travis came as a kitten about 5 years later - they both came from the same shelter.
I'd better go put this plate on the kitchen floor before Betty files a grievance.
That's Betty on the left and Travis on the right.
