Sheba is supposed to eat only her canned DM food and dry Nutro (only until the shipment of dry DM arrives). No snacks, no people food, no dog food ( I have seen her do that a time or two through the years). She gets her dry food all day. But the canned food only morning and evening with her insulin soon after. She has been pretty good about it....until yesterday.

We spent most of the day visiting my sister near Denver and comparing tales and pictures of the blizzard just past. We were having a such a good time the hours just slipped by. Just after I won the inevitable Scrabble game, we realized it was time to feed and medicate Sheba. With the roads like they are after the storm, it took two hours to get home.

I immediately got to work feeding the hungry horde while Jeff got some firewood in (we have no furnace). With the porch door staying open so long, the cats immediately investigated the room they hardly see anymore. After awhile Djoser came in walking funny with his head kind of down. So I went to see what was the matter with him as he went to the bedroom.

He stops just in front of the open closet and turns around. I get a good look at him and, not wanting to startle him; I quietly, but firmly, admonish him: "Don't you dare let that mouse get away into my closet!" Well, the other cats speak English and understand the Keyword I just used. They materialized in front of Djoser.

I think he was planning on playing Catch with it; but with the other cats in his face, he got a better grip on his prize and tried to back up a little farther from them. They got closer, speaking to him all the time. I am sure they were trying to get him to share. Afraid he was going to lose it, he crunched. "Thank you, Djoser!" I cried.

Then I left. But I heard Sheba growling and speaking Cattese. She has quite a vocabulary. Then I saw Djoser coming into the kitchen and his mouth was empty. Boy, that was fast! So I went to clean up the leavings. They always leave a body part. UGH!

And there was Sheba with 3/4 of the mouse being quickly masticated! You'd have thought she was starving the way she was going at it and growling. I wasn't about to try to take it away from her. Her claws were out and her growls intimidated even me!

The last several months Sheba hasn't been feeling well as the diabetes progressed. So Djoser had been intimidating and harassing her in the never-ending game of sibling rivalry. But that just came to an end as she snatched that mouse from his mouth! That made it taste even better! And to have real food instead of DM. I wonder what TED will say about her unauthorized snack!

Copyright © Catherine Jo Sadler
March 24, 2003