he ate a largish piece of basil, too

[rushthatspeaks]

The list of foods the cat likes enough that he should not be left alone with them has now been updated to include mustard-based balsamic vinaigrette.

What the hell, cat.

We told him he is an obligate carnivore. We told him several times. He smiled and looked smug and licked his chops.

It was tangerine-infused balsamic, too, and cats are theoretically supposed to have a species-wide aversion to all citrus, although, given that this cat has happily chomped lemon slices before, in my wife's wise words: "Species-wide aversion, my Aunt Fanny. I don't even have an Aunt Fanny."

So now I guess I get to spend time keeping the cat out of the salad bowl.

What the hell, cat.

Comments

[redbird]

I don't know if I can't leave Julian alone with that sort of vinaigrette, but I suspect he would happily eat a lettuce leaf—and certainly a bit of cucumber or tomato—dipped in same.

I just lured my not-so-obligate carnivore off my desk by offering him a bit of blueberry. But our running joke about "orange food for orange cats" is at least as much about flavor as color: sweet potatoes are all right, but they're not up there with lime or tangerine.

[tesserae]

Aunt Fanny indeed. My last cat's very favorite snacks were lemon muffins, lemon yogurt and chili-lime tortilla chips.

Aversion, hah! No sweet tooth, double hah!

[kore]

'We told him he is an obligate carnivore. We told him several times. He smiled and looked smug and licked his chops.'

Oh man, we have that with Max all the time. "You don't eat that! You're a cat! Cats don't eat leafy greens!" *CHOMP*

[rydra_wong]

My late lamented cat was wild about falafel.

[zeborah]

I met my cat when she broke into my house and chowed into a bag of bread I'd left on the bench. She eats less bread now that she's not starving, mind. [ETA: Also now that I know to keep the bread out of reach.]

But she also really likes frozen peas.

Not citrus, though. You should have seen her with the empty tin from the lemon-pepper flavoured tuna I put on my sandwiches. She'd get all close because tuna! But then she'd recoil because lemon. But tuna! But lemon. But tuna! But lemon.

Hours of entertainment; I may have sprained something.

[(Anonymous)]

Bread, pizza, breakfast cereal, basil, plastic bags.... I've had cats that would go nuts given the chance to eat any of those. Of course, we also have Dr. Friendlykatt, who always wants to sniff human food, and then looks at us strangely. "You're really planning to eat THAT?"

[genarti]

Ha! Oh dear. What the hell, cat, indeed.

(Rarely am I so glad that our cats don't believe anything is food if it isn't kibble in their bowls as when I hear other people's anecdotes. It has its occasional downsides, but all the same, KEEP BEING OBLIVIOUS, CATS. My old cat loved cheese and loved to beg for scraps, but didn't have any particularly amusing cravings.)

...I lie; our cats also believe that daffodils are food. But that one's fairly easily avoided.

[notyourwendy]

I have learned to stop saying 'ok, sniff it, you won't like it' because, unfortunately, he generally does like it.

Which is why I can't eat popcorn on the couch anymore, or lime tortilla chips, or dried fruit, or candied water chestnuts, or gummy fruit snacks.

Seriously cat, candied water chestnuts? I can only get them at certain times of the year and I'm certainly not sharing my limited servings with you (this never works).

[weirdquark]

There was a cat at the house where Thrud and I played our theological not-D&D game that we were in when we first moved to Cambridge. One night we all ordered Chinese food. There was crispy orange chicken. The cat pounced on leftovers we irresponsibly were not paying attention to and wound up with a piece of broccoli.

The cat did not look pleased with this outcome but ate the broccoli anyway; we thought because she wanted us to think she did this on purpose and wasn't interested in any chicken that may or may not have been in the leftovers, but who knows? Perhaps she was going for the broccoli after all.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I have heard that many cats show a partiality for broccoli. Certainly one of the ones I grew up with did, and when she stole broccoli she generally got to eat it, because we were all amazed that she stole it.

The same cat also liked fried chicken so much that we had to shut her up in a bedroom whenever we had it, and she would spend the entire time howling mournfully at the door.

eta: Also, a YouTube search for "kitten likes broccoli" brings up the hilarious viral video of Captain Pugwash, who LOVES him some broccoli, as well as a number of other videos of cats eating broccoli.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

cats are theoretically supposed to have a species-wide aversion to all citrus

IIRC one of Chuck Jones' autobiographical books told about a cat of his with a passionate fondness for grapefruit. I think there was a photograph of it with a grapefruit rind on its head.

My brother's former father-in-law had a cat that loved lettuce to the extent that it would steal lettuce leaves from underneath fresh shrimp, ignoring the shrimp entirely.

Executive summary: cats are deeply weird.

[gallian.livejournal.com]

Rabbits are herbivores.
I once chased a foster rabbit half way across the house to retrieve a stolen piece of beef jerky.

Conclusion: animals are weird. And domestic animals rarely consent to play by the laws of nature.

[sovay]

he ate a largish piece of basil, too

It was not safe to leave cantaloupe unattended around Tzythy when I was growing up.

[larryhammer]

Bwahahahaha!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

How strange! Cats are confusing.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

It's a cunning plan. While you're guarding the tangerine-infused balsamic, he's stealing the mice en brochette from—Wait. This is puzzling.

Nine

[leah nicolich-henkin (from livejournal.com)]

My cats have stolen (although not always eaten) some weird stuff. Their favorite is mozzarella, but they also are liable to claw through bags and take bites out of bready things (cheese bread, scones, loaves of bread). They've also taken vegetables like lettuce and steamed fennel. I grew up with a cat who really likes Chinese broccoli in black bean sauce, though.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Our vet said she recommends canned pumpkin as fiber because most cats like canned pumpkin. How their ancestors would come by or consume whole pumpkins in the wild I'm sure I do not know.

[q10.livejournal.com]

well, most humans like chocolate, and and this is true even of human populations that don't have any evolutionary-time-scale ancestors who lived in places where cacao was even remotely available.

presumably this is like that.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Maybe its reminiscent of the stomach contents of small rodents?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Nefer has a Thing for smoked paprika, and will rub her head on its container, and drool all over it and the counter, if we let her near it. She seems to react the same way that Sora does to stinky, mildewed sponges.