Oscar, our feral stray, is generally very good at making his preferences known. We learned he didn't like dry cat food when he would slap the bowl with his paw and send it flying anytime we put dry cat food out for him. Through a series of similar incidents we learned that Oscar will only eat salmon, tuna, chicken, steak (as in our leftovers from dinner) or canned cat food, pates only please. We've been feeding him according to his champagne tastes for 3.5 years now.
Lately he had been fussy about eating. None of the dramatic bowl slapping as he's done in the past. Just eating less and less and staring in the door at us. Normally staring in the kitchen door means he wants more food. Since we buy him the 48 can variety pack we tried giving him different flavors when he would stare in the door at us with uneaten food in his bowl. However he would still eat only part of his food and eventually leave. Since Oscar is usually good for at least two cans a day this was odd.
Oscar sleeping on Ewen's bed on the porch
Quite by accident we realized he had tired of his pates. We were almost out of pates and Jason bought a few cans of filets to tide Oscar over until we did our weekly shopping. I actually chastised Jason for not paying attention. Hello, Oscar is very picky, you must pay attention when making purchases for our feral cat we cannot touch. Jason got to bask in the glow of an "I was wrong and you were right" conversation as Oscar scarfed down his filet cans and asked for more. He has now happily been eating anywhere from 2 to 4 cans of filets per day for the last week. He's so happy with his filets he has often been throwing in an early morning visit for food as well. At 4:30am Oscar is sitting at the kitchen door waiting for someone to get up and feed him. We joke that Oscar spies on us and knows our habits better than we know them.
We used to buy Oscar the 48 can variety pack of pates from Costco. Of course we cannot purchase the filets at Costco so now we've had to add another store to our errand running repertoire each week in order to accommodate Oscar. I would like to mention that Jingle and Joy, our two inside cats that let us pet them and that happily sleep on our laps, eat dry cat food. Our feral cat has us trained to perfection.
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Timbit grazing while Griselle and Bonnie napped . . .
. . . then he decided he needed as well
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4 comments:
Have you tried inviting Oscar into the inside house? My mom found a feral many years ago. He ate, slept, etc outside. One day, he looked at my mom and said inside must be even better. He never went outside again. Just a thought.
Oscar has an open invitation to the inside of the house. His answer is always a resounding no. We ask him about once a week.
Oscar has an open invitation to the inside of the house. His answer is always a resounding no. We ask him about once a week.
They change the "required food" randomly, just to drive the humans nuts. Of course, kids are the same way. The day after we bought a case of our son's favorite fruit cocktail at Sam's, he quit eating it. Oscar has the best cat position there is. Outside, independent, fed with vet support as needed. Cat CEO.
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