Pushovers

G+G

The “leftovers” scam during the polite days.

So it has been a few days since the last posting so I thought I would share a small story I found humorous this morning.
Gretchen the cat has always been a fussy eater. You would think that an animal that was feral for a portion of her youth would be willing to eat any size portion that was put in front of her. Nope. Usually only tuna-based wet food and only salmon-flavored dry food. Sometimes she will demand dry food three times until she gets enough, sometimes she will demand food and eat three pieces. Enter her partners in food-scamming crime. We began to sense a pattern. Gretchen would wander by her sisters and then come to us and demand food. We, being the ever faithful servants, would deliver. Three small pieces later she would wander off and miracle of miracles, of of her sisters would be there to finish up her leftovers so that Gretchen had fresh food every time.

cat and dog sitting side-by-side

Mali and Gretchen, co-conspirators.

At first we thought this coincidence. After all, don’t these two seem innocent? It soon became apparent that some type of food-trading scheme was going on. We weren’t sure what Gretchen was receiving in return, but for a good amount of time we allowed the “leftovers” scam to continue. It seemed to contribute to a degree of sisterly-bonding between the three we reasoned.

Fast forward to several days ago. It is unclear what brought this scam to such a horrible point. Gretchen has finally started venturing forth from the house in the warm weather. Perhaps she isn’t delivering on some winter promise of all the mouse-heads the girls could eat. It really is unclear. However, Mali has now escalated the leftovers scam. Mali will hover over Gretchen getting closer and closer until she is resting her nose on Gretchen’s back while she eats. Or, horror of horrors, drool on Miss Gretch. This forces the cat to abandon her food more quickly, so that Mali gets a bigger portion of the loot. Mali took it to an all-time high yesterday when, after finishing her dinner in another room, came scrambling into the kitchen where the cat was eating and leapt onto her dog bed causing it to slide into the cat, pushing her out of her food bowl. Observing this, Mrs. BoDonkey commented, “Well, it looks like it has turned from a leftovers scam into a pushovers scam.” I found this funny, the cat — not so much. Moral of the story, All good scams depend on the willingness of the participants to play well together!

Published: 03.29.2016

In: Critters

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