Best friends

This morning a blog reader sent me the link to an amazing video, a lovely tale of animal friendship, which should put a smile on your face: http://tinyurl.com/3d8q4t
 
Speaking of best friends. Being close in age, my two youngest cats, Priscilla (two years old) and Peekaboo (ten months old), spend a lot of time together, mostly playing and chasing each other all over the house (it’s a real circus here, sometimes! ), but they also do one of the cutest and most amusing things I have ever seen. Today I caught it on camera. I should really learn to take videos with my digital camera (ok, that’s my next project), since photos can tell only so much.
 
First, some background. About a year ago, Puzzola (my eldest) developed a urinary tract problem, so she has been on a special diet since last summer. Being a believer in prevention, I have put the other adult cats on the same diet, too. They really like the food, so it hasn’t been a problem.
 
That is, until Peekaboo joined the family. She’s a healthy bouncy kitten and is not supposed to be on a diet, of course.
 
We thought of separating the cats at mealtimes. But they all eat in the kitchen/dining room area, which is an open space. No doors to shut. That idea didn’t work. So, what to do?

Well, in the beginning I would give Peekaboo some kitten food and would stand guard to make sure the other cats wouldn’t bother her. But then I realized that she could defend herself…even from Piccolo. He can shove the other two females away from their dishes, but not this feisty little one. Very baffling for my big strong boy.

At any rate, now I give Peekaboo a mixture of the diet food and kitten food (or just kitten food), and let the cats figure things out for themselves.

But the story continues. It turns out that Priscilla loves kitten food. Who can blame her? But she soon realized that they couldn’t eat from the same dish because both their heads wouldn’t fit over it. As simple as that. So she devised a method for stealing bits of food from Peekaboo’s dish (I should note that my cats have their own dishes, but sometimes Priscilla ignores her food and walks over to check out what the kitten is eating, even if I give them the exact same thing. By now, she is firmly convinced that I give Peekaboo the tastiest morsels).

Priscilla’s simple but smart solution: she dips her paw into the dish while Peekaboo is eating and fishes out some food for herself. This cat has brains.

Eh, but the most amusing part is that Peekaboo has learned to do the same thing. She thinks it’s really cool to use her paws to eat. So they take turns at the dish, as you can see in these photos. Ahhh, I do love these cats! Can you tell?

6 Comments

  1. Hi Margaret,
    What an amazing video! If only my dog could learn a lesson from this and accept that a cat and dog could live in the same house. I could sit and look at animals for hours – especially cats as entertaining and as smart as yours!
    Take care,
    Mary

  2. Happened to find your blog under Curcumin for Myeloma– I was diagnosed with “smoldering” MM two years ago– I take many things including Vitamin D3, Resveratrol AND Curcumin–
    http://www.agelesscures.com I believe is the Website for the Brand of Curcumin that I use– I take 3,000mg per day– but realize that there may be an absorption problem– my naturopath Dr. Reilly at Cancer Treatment Center said that from bloodwork he thinks I may be MGUS. When first diagnosed the oncologist wanted to start me on Prednisone and Zometa which I did not want to do after reading about these drugs and the side effects– I changed doctors and now have an MM transplant specialist at the Fred Hutch/SCCA who just watches my numbers every 6 months– I also went to IMF Seminar and Dr. Kyle from Mayo Clinic also advised no treatment for now–
    I am interested in the sublingual mixture for curcumin “paste”– I will try to mix it. The Bioperrine is always a worry as I am type A+ blood and supposedly pepper not good for us– (“The Blood Type Diet” by Peter D’Adams)– I presented with Neutopenia (low neutrophils– which they do not treat but the neutrophil count luckily has not gone below 1,000 (1.0) –it should be between 4.0-7.0.
    I am not anemic and there are no lesions–
    Hope to stay in touch.
    Your info very helpful–
    Very best, Beth

  3. Wow, you guys are dealing with such staggering issues, and with such grace too! I am so glad that you all have been able to find doctors willing to work with you on more holistic, more natural ways of coping with the problems. I’m also amazed at the amount of research Margaret and people like you, Beth, have done on your own! It’s quite illuminating.

  4. P.S. I love the story of your cats too, Margaret. I have four (and two dogs), and as you say, it’s quite a zoo! I have two feral cats (extremely shy), two quasi-normal cats (is any cat ever “normal”?), and both dogs are wacky in various ways too. All strays. Does Florence have as many stray cats as Rome, Margaret?
    Melinda

  5. Beth: I am type A+, too. Regardless of blood type, though, too much pepper is not a good thing for us in the long run. One thing I do when I take curcumin with bioperine is eliminate pepper from my diet. Easy to do. I will get in touch with you privately later on today or tomorrow. So glad to read you spoke with Dr. Kyle (so did I!). Sweet man.

    Melinda: thank you for your staggeringly kind comments. 😉 Florence does have quite a few stray cats. There are many in my area, too, but there are official “gattare” (“gatto” is “cat” in Italian), usually women who are certified by the city of Florence to feed and care for groups of cats. There is a “gattara” in my neighbourhood, too. And the stray cats are well fed. I have fed a few, myself.

    Have a great Sunday, everyone!
    Margaret 🙂

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