Monday, November 29

Corn chowder and cat diet observation

Today it was cold, not a nice day to be outside for too long. Time to fire up the wood-burning stove and dream up something to cook slowly in a big pot. From last summer’s leftovers from the high ranch we had food that languished in the back freezer. Like a slab of thick-cut bacon. Premium stuff. In the fridge was a package with six pieces of corn on the cob. It didn’t take too much imagination to decide to make corn chowder, the perfect chilly-day meal.

I cooked the bacon on the wood stove to perfection. Then I sliced the corn from the cobs. Some of it popped off and landed on the floor. When food-like things hit the floor, Boots the cat pays attention. She glommed onto the raw corn bits as if she were starved! A veggie cat? Cats are strict carnivores, I thought, but then I remembered that Boots has also eaten bits of onion, potato, and even broccoli (kidding!). Earlier today I spotted Florence, Boots’ sister, eating fresh shoots of grass outside.

Am I to toss out the “knowledge” I have about cats’ diets? What if I related my personal observation to someone and had no way to back it up, authority-wise? Would I be dismissed as a mere anecdotal observer?

Cats are strict carnivores, period. I must be wrong. Forget what I said. Whew! Safe in the lap of established scientific dogma, I can sleep tonight.

Boots is wrong.

Stupid cat.

3 comments:

Pete S. said...

Ana's cat eats grass, comes inside, and barfs on the carpet to get rid of the grass. If you're quick you can get a newspaper under the cat's mouth just in time. I think this is supposed to be therapeutic in some way (for the cat, not for the grass or the people).

Tom Hurley said...

Imagine! Throwing up as therapy! Yuck!

Ana C. said...

I have a friend whose otherwise mild-mannered cat would periodically become a pest in the kitchen while she was preparing dinner, whining and carrying on something awful. One day, while she was chopping broccoli, she accidentally dropped a piece, and the cat pounced on it and devoured it, then looked up at her for more. She realized he had been after raw broccoli the whole time.

Now if only I could train that cat to barf up his grass outside...