Yesterday I bought a bag of the cats' current favourite treats - meaty sticks in tuna flavour. When I got home from doing the shopping, I got out said bag of treats from the shopping bag and shook the wee bag containing the treats. Three cats immediately teleported to my feet from the mothership and started to purr, doing the "I am starving so feed me now" routine, followed by the "You haven't given those to me *yet* so I am going to take them by *force*" routine. Multitudinous paws were wrapped around my hands like a writhing mass of boa constrictors all fighting for the food.

I opened the bag and had great delight in separating three cats all doing the "Me, me me!" routine and the "No, ignore him, it's me, me, me!" and the "Me NOW!" routines; all ducking and diving amongst each other, jostling for place to get the first cat treat out of the bag.

I managed to separate out the squirming mass of melded cat flesh into three separate entities and duly gave each a couple of meaty sticks. Purrs and chomping noises ensued followed by five minutes of thorough washing noises combined with feline burps of satisfaction.

Feline washing, burping and farting session over - well there really is no other way to end a surprise meal, is there - the cats dispersed and Waffles trotted out into the garden, tail held high.

Five minutes later, I'm sat in the office and I hear Waffles come in through the cat flap, calling out to me, "MMMOOOWWWZ! MMMOOOWWWZZ!" What a sweetie she is. I'd just given her a favourite treat - some meaty sticks, so she had gone out into the garden and caught me a shrew! She brought it back to me - dropped it at my feet and said, "MMMOOOOWWWZ!" What a thoughtful caring feline she is! I gave her a treat, so she went out and got one for me! YUM! How could I not give her another meaty stick treat as a reward?? She immediately tucked in and then looked at Francis and Marble with a smug expression and I am sure she stuck her tongue out at them as if to say, "Yah Boo Sucks!"

Copyright © Helen Simmons
October 26, 2001