The Lengths to Which She Will Go

One of my cats is perfect -- never does anything wrong, except maybe getting over-offended occasionally when the dog tries to sniff her. The other one ... well, I love Tiva, don't get me wrong. She is entertainment wrapped in a five-pound package. But she is nuts. I never know what she's going to do next, which is (naturally) part of the entertainment value and helps make my life interesting. It's a good thing that her brand of insanity is a perfect match for my sense of humor.

Take the other day, for example, when we left the door to the sun room open (it's full of windows and faces south, so it gets really warm on sunny days). We heard a CRASH! and assumed it was the cat trying to get into food. (More on that later.) So Damon investigates, and she has somehow managed to completely upend the recycling bin upon herself, trapping her little kitty body underneath it. How (or, indeed, why), we will probably never know. It was hilarious.

I should explain something about this cat: She is itty-bitty. As in, people come over all the time and say, "Oh, cute kitten, how old is she?" (She will be nine this year, for the record.) Because we love our pets, we buy them premium pet food, and because Tiva is a little tiny thing, I leave food out for her 24/7. It's in an area where the dog can't get to it, and I make sure it is always full.

One weird food thing she does is eat the dog food, although I can understand why she might have wanted to try it once or twice. But every time we feed Marshall, if he doesn't come right over to his dish and eat, she will sit there and eat his food. Because she's so small, and because the large-breed kibble is so big, she has to bite each kibble into smaller pieces. It takes a long time for her to finish one. So it's not that I'm worried about her eating all his food. The weird part is that she isn't scared of Marshall at all -- he has to push her out of the way when he finally decides to eat. She hasn't hissed at him or swatted at him for trying to reach his own food bowl -- yet.

And this was the icing on the cake recently. We were running low on cat food, so I bought a fresh bag the other day. I keep my cat food in an airtight bin so it stays fresh. And my thought was to use what was left in the bin before opening the new bag and transferring it to the bin. Would have worked -- if my cat had not torn the bag open in two different places trying to get at the food inside.

The exact same food, if I might remind you, that is already out in a dish and waiting for her constantly in the same place every day of every week of every month of ... you get the picture.

You just have to laugh. I would give a lot to know what's going on in that kitty brain sometimes.