The mission of a cat ...

is to keep his or her human(s) guessing.

When I got Koala, I had a cat that had to have canned food morning and
evening, in spite of the fact that there's kibble out all the time. He
immediately decided that he had to have it too. A few months ago he
changed his demands to "canned food every morning, and in the evening if
I feel like it". I give him the morning food before I fix my own
breakfast, and I was fixing his evening food before I fixed my dinner
(naturally ;-) ). Then he started not showing up for the evening food,
so now I give it to him only if he comes to the kitchen before or while
I'm fixing my dinner.

Pickles has never shown any interest in the canned food, unless it's
tuna, when she sometimes demands some. Usually when he gets his canned
food, it's time for Pickles to lead me into the living room for some
private petting and skritching. She won't share - if I'm petting her
and Koala comes up for some, she walks away. Lately she has
occasionally decided that she would rather have the canned food for the
petting and skritching. She would indicate that by shoving Koala away
from the dish and eating the food herself, so I started giving her a
little dish of it when I fed him. For a while, she wanted it every day,
then just once in a while.

She hasn't asked for the food for some time. However, this morning when
I fed Koala, instead of following me into the living room, she stood and
watched Koala eat. When I came back from the living room, she was
eating and Koala was watching. I fixed another dish of food and put it
down. She immediately left the room, and Koala ate that food too.