Behold the brimming bowl of meat and meal

[austin_dern]

My parents have two cats. There's the older one, whom we've rather unfairly characterized as the dumb one, when in fact it's been months since she last walked headfirst into a wall, and she caught her error the first time around that time. Then there's the other one, just barely out of kitten status in the official standings, who has never found anything to be nearly so exciting and novel and all-out interesting as whatever it is she's seeing now. We had the chance for some exploration of their personalities today when a baking dish shattered as my dad tried putting it away.

The younger cat was particularly interested in this, both because it was happening now, and because the pieces of glass were dangerously close to the cats' food dish and water bowl. I was assigned the job of getting the younger cat out of the way while my parents cleaned up. The cat doesn't mind being picked up, but once lifted, she's looking for more kicks, and so will start squirming around looking for more places to climb up. I can give her some of that, but I run out of parts to climb pretty quick. Mom told me the thing to do is put the cat in the bathroom and close the door.

After the dish was cleaned up and the floor swept and vacuumed we let the cat out, and all was fine for a while until Mom was putting dinner together and the cat began meowing at her. We had picked up the food and water dishes to clean them out, but forgot to put anything back. The younger cat was worried we might not ever remember the dishes. Meow. ``Yes, just a minute, I'm making dinner.'' Meow. ``I know, just wait.'' Meow. ``I'll get your dish, just wait.'' Meow. ``Your food dish is coming.'' Meow. (Pause.) Meow meow. ``You don't say.'' Meow.

The older cat, meanwhile, sat through all of this, watching from the sun room. She doesn't like events she hasn't already processed before in life, and stayed sulking until fresh food and water was set down.

Trivia: Yuri Gagarin was forbidden to fly in June 1964. The decision was rescinded in 1966. Source: The Rocket Men, Rex Hall, David J Shayler.

Currently Reading: The Ice Finders: How a Poet, A Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age, Edmund Blair Bolles.

Comments

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a perfectly reasonable conversation... which has happened in our household more than once, between Kristy and I.

*meow*
"Yes?"
*meow*
"You want breakfast, right?"
*meow*
"You're not broken, you can fix it yourself."
*meow*
"The can opener is right there in the kitchen, and you have opposable thumbs. You can handle this."
*meow*
"All right, I'm up."

And, of course, as soon as Kristy's been thoroughly annoyed, I'm happy to go grab breakfast on my own. *grin*

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised she doesn't start to meow back. I try that with the cats, and it occasionally works, or just leaves them confused.