On Thu, 19 Jan 2017 04:24:06 -0000 (UTC), Bastette
wrote:

And then there was the time I came home from grocery shopping, and (foolishly)
put the bag on the floor while unpacking a different bag. Next thing I knew,
Smudge had gotten into the bag. She ignored the raw chicken and the cheese
that were in there, and had torn open a bag of English muffins.

I've been fortunate. I love to eat, but I hate grocery shopping...so when I go,
often I bring home a month or more worth of stuff. I end up with it everywhere,
waiting for me to put it all away. It's on the table, on the chairs, both
countertops, on top of the stove, and - of course - on the floor.

Minnie will sniff things that are on the floor - by which I mean to say, she'll
sniff EVERYTHING that's on the floor. But she has yet to rip anything open, even
when I leave bags of rice and pasta in cardboard boxes on the floor because all
of my cupboards are already stuffed and there's no more room.

That is Minnie's part of our unspoken agreement about food storage around here.
My part of the deal is that she gets first crack at claiming any cardboard boxes
she decides she wants as they gradually become empty. She's actually got two of
them in the kitchen now and there's a third one she's decided she wants but we
haven't agreed on a place for her to put it yet.

Yeah, whenever a dog owner claims that "cats are much easier pets than dogs,"
I know that they have never tried to pill a cat. The last time I took care
of someone's dog, I had to give him medication every night. All I had to do
was stick the pill inside one of those bacon-cheese treats and toss it in
the air. He'd catch it and swallow it whole.

LOL...Joyce, don't even get me started on dog owners. This is another topic I'm
sure I could write a book on.

I reached the conclusion long ago that the average dog owner is 99% clueless
about cats. The 1% that they usually do know is that it's better to keep their
dogs away from our cats unless they were already planning a trip to the vet's
anyway, although not all of them even know that. Often the dogs are smarter
about that than their owners. Your neighbor might bring a dog along into your
yard to chat with you even though your cat is standing there hissing with back
raised and fur standing up, but the dog's body language usually says, "No,
please...this is bound to end horribly...can't we just go back home now?" Yet
the neighbor will let the dog approach a cat who appears ready in all respects
to be photographed for the next issue of Halloween Cat Quarterly - even ignoring
a warning from you to keep the dog away - and then as soon as the cat quite
predictably accepts this thoughtful invitation to use the poor dog's face for a
scratching post, the outraged dog owner will invariably cry, "That cat's crazy!"

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY