Bon Bon

Food is a Really Big Thing in my household!

I tend to eat things that require little or no preparation (wheelchair-bound, remember?). Louise does some cooking for me on Fridays and the most I have to do is warm things up. Yesterday she fixed Spanish rice, salad, sliced cucumbers with sour cream, and brownies!

I used to give the kids nothing but Feline CD and they definitely did thrive on it! Sometimes I mixed in a package of Iams Seafood, which they loved. However, when I began to see that Misty (Rainbow Bridge) was having trouble with the dry food, I started getting canned food for her. Yeah, sure! Have you ever tried ignoring four big cats who smell canned food on the air and are darned sure it is better than what "they" are eating?

We ended up with a "potluck" arrangement. Creampuff never did take to canned food, but the others pretty much ate what they could get, mostly a combination of the two. They also seemed to take a fresh interest in what "I" was eating! During the week, I eat a lot of yoghurt, cottage cheese, and tuna salad, all of which seem to be tantalizing to cats.

Which brings us to last Friday. I decided to have a mid-afternoon snack of vanilla yoghurt. I got the container and the spoon, and settled down in my recliner, while the odor must have wafted through the house.

The first one to arrive was Gizmo. Now we are working on his grace and good manners, but his attitude seems to be "Ya take what ya can get!" He leaped up into my lap, but he overshot the target, and stopped himself by sinking his little needle- like front claws (six on each paw, remember?) into my upper thigh!

I yelped -- no, I screamed from pain and surprise -- and the container of yoghurt went up in the air, to land with a satisfying "SPLATT!" on my burnt-orange tile. Gizmo decided this was no place for a smart cat and leaped back down, only to land on Bon Bon, who was coming to see what there was to eat!

At this point Baby headed for the closet, where she watched what was happening in amazement! She didn't come out for hours!

Bon Bon, in the meantime, felt all four lbs. of cat land on her back, and began to back peddle down the hallway, shrieking hysterically. Gizmo held on for dear life, until Bon Bon ran backwards into the partly opened door of the linen closet. Now Louise had just put two sets of clean, dried and folded sheets into the linen closet, and these fell out on poor, terrified Bon Bon.

The door to the guest room was open, and Creampuff and Precious were dozing peacefully on the bed. When Bon Bon started to yodel, they knew it was time to depart for safer quarters. Bon Bon, however, knew from experience that the space under the guest room bed was a safe sanctuary. I should mention that the mattress is kind of close to the floor, and it takes a mite of scurrying for a cat to get under it, especially all 22-lbs of Creampuff!

I arrived to see a sight seldom viewed -- three good-sized cats, all trying to get under the bed, all at the same place, all at the same time!! Bottoms were wiggling like mad, and paws were working furiously! Finally, they all three were tucked under, and no evidence that a cat even lived here was to be seen!

I picked up the sheets and pillowcases, and cleaned up as much of the yoghurt as I could manage, all the while reflecting that this would be a story that cats would share among themselves around the "campfire" (fireplace?) on a winter evening. No one would ever know who the "ghosts" were that almost got them that day.

Except for Gizmo. He just wondered what the noise was all about!

Copyright © Renee Darvin
July 2, 2000