Someone explain to me this bizarro cat logic.

[LynneSin]

When I first brought Evita home, Abbott wasn't very good at sharing his food dish. So I solved the problem by putting out an identical second dish and making sure equal amounts of the same food are in both dishes.

Even still....

No matter which dish one cat takes the other one wants to eat out of that dish. I mean there are two dishes with the same amount of the same food side by side and yet my cats will not be happy because they can't eat out of the dish the other one is eating out of.

Seriously why do we own cats!

[TZ]

1. Here's the logic: anything to screw with you.

Seriously, I think thats the feline philosophy of life, to play headgames with everyone....The in out door game proves this as well...

[Crystal Clarity]

6. Haha! "The in out door game"

I know that one all too well. Cats always seem to be on the wrong side of the door. :D

[csziggy]

13. My cat has this game down to a fine art

I'm usually in my library - downstairs room with lots of windows. The cat will be outside and lets me know he wants in by scratching at the windows. If I don't let him in fast enough, he shreds the screens.

So I let him in. About ten minutes later, he will be back at the windows, wanting in.

The trick to this is, hubby spends his time upstairs in "his" room. Once the cat is in, he checks the food dish then runs upstairs and hassles hubby. Hubby comes down and lets the cat out the back door which is next to the stairs. Almost immediately, the cat immediately wants back in. The cat can do this all day long. We of course get tired of the game, but my window screens show the result of attempting to opt out.

The winning strategy for all sides is to feed the cat who then finds a warm place, inside or out, to sleep, unless he wants more food or water, or needs to relieve himself.

Watering the cat is another game. He will not drink out of a bowl. His preferred choices are (1) outside from the water trough that is always trickling (another "game" this time with a horse), thus adding a new level to the "in out door game", or (2) from the shower floor, which means I have to run the shower for a few minutes, without getting the cat wet, wait while he licks enough water off the floor, then let him out of the bathroom.

This cat also does not use a litter box. He does not go inside at all - only outside. So about 50% of the time after he eats, he needs to go out immediately. He takes about five to ten minutes to take care of business and then if the weather is bad, he wants back in. New level of the "in out door game"! If it is raining, he expects to be dried off with a towel which introduces a new game - attack the person aiding the towel monster. We played that yesterday and the scratches are still seeping a little blood....

[distantearlywarning]

14. LOL! One of ours has also discovered that

looking wet, bedraggled, and pitiful causes the humans to dry him off with a nice warm towel, thus saving him 15 minutes of grooming. I don't know why people think we own cats; it's entirely the other way around.

[csziggy]

17. Mine is more appreciative when he is really cold and wet

and he will snuggle into the towel to help get himself dry. But if he is just damp he likes the "towel monster" game - which he initiates by rubbing his wet self against my legs.

The only explanation for my cat is that he is totally insane. I can only pet him at night, on the bed, in the dark, if he has a fuzzy blanket to suckle on. And even then he is likely to go berserk and attack me. But I've owned him since he was five weeks old and he is decidedly my cat. He uses hubby for getting stuff, but he responds to me more.

[woo me with science]

2. Same thing happens if I give popsicles to the kids. nt

[hedgehog]

3. For a real fun time, give two dogs identical bones .....

it's a hoot watching them try to figure out where to hide their own bone while simultaneously planning on stealing the other guy's bone!

I mean , if they attempt to give a loud intimidating bark, they'd drop the bone they have and the other guy could snatch it ...if he drops the bone he has !

[MilesColtrane]

4. You are throwing a monkey wrench into the natural order of the feline hierarchy.

The top-cat wants in on the fresh kill first.

[LynneSin]

5. Which is fine - he can have the dish first but there is another identical dish

with the same amount of the same food. If Evita figures out that dish is available to her then Abbott wants that dish too.

[MilesColtrane]

8. He figures that's HIS two course meal!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. It's the same at my house, but with three cats.

They never end up eating from the same bowl they started with. Each cat always nudges another cat away from the bowl he/she is eating from, and then that nudgee nudges the next one, and they go round and round. It's the same food in the same amount, but they all have to be sure another cat isn't getting more or better food. Like little kids.

[LynneSin]

9. But don't you think after 7 years they'd learn it's the same exact food

:shrug:

[ipfilter]

10. Cats find clever ways to annoy humans.

I have four and their fiendish treachery knows no bounds.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. My guess:

"Other cat is eating out of that bowl. So it must have the best food."

[distantearlywarning]

12. Here's how this game works at my house:

I have two cats, siblings, who get along well and like one another. Nevertheless, they are competitive and weird about some things, and dinnertime is one of them.

Like you, we put down two identical bowls of food. Both kitties know which dish is "theirs" and will start eating. Our dominant alpha cat will eat 1/2 of his, and then go over to his brother's dish, nudge him out of the way and proceed to eat the rest of his brother's food. Brother beta cat sits a few feet away and waits until alpha cat is finished and leaves the kitchen. Then he goes over to alpha cat's bowl and eats the remaining 1/2 of alpha cat's dinner which alpha cat has since forgotten about.

Thus, both cats get a full dinner, and both cats also fully believe that they have "pulled one over" on the other cat. This is not our system, by the way. They worked this one out all on their own. :crazy:

I have also noticed that the beta cat pays a lot of attention to other times when the alpha cat isn't around at the food dish, and capitalizes on his absence in sneaky ways. For example, if we put both dishes down, but alpha cat hasn't arrived for dinner yet, the beta cat will often ignore "his" dish, and go eat about 1/3 of the alpha cat's food before returning to his own portion. Alpha cat never seems to have caught onto the fact that he's often mysteriously getting less food when he arrives late for dinner.

And as you might guess, from our perspective, alpha cat is bigger and more socially aggressive, but beta cat possesses the brighter lightbulb, so it all kind of evens out in the end. :-)

[Gormy Cuss]

15. One of the reasons I had lots of cat sitting was to monitor the food intake by cat.

I had a client who instructed me to place each cat and its food in separate rooms and shut the doors, wait for half an hour, then open the doors and retrieve the bowls.

Another one said to place the young cat's bowl on the counter and the arthritic fat cat's on the floor.

Still another wanted me to stand there while each ate the meal and shoo away any cat who tried to eat from the other's bowl.

Don't get me started on litter box routines with cat clients...oy.

[distantearlywarning]

16. Cat dynamics don't always seem fair or reasonable from a human perspective

But we figure that whatever is going on between them is functional, since they don't fight and seem to both be pretty content with their lives. We assume that our interference in (for example) meal time social jockeying would probably just cause problems. So we just observe and laugh at the antics instead.

[applegrove]

18. When I put catnip down on the ground for monster he turns into a hog. I pretend I want

some and he covers it all with his paws and his body so I can't get any. LOL!

[LynneSin]

20. Maybe we can get your cat on A&E's "Intervention"

that could be an interesting show to watch

[applegrove]

26. LOL!

[Yavin4]

19. Your Cats Are Republicans

Check to see if they watch Fox News when you're not home.

[jobycom]

23. Win-The-Internets POD!

:rofl:

[david13]

27. Oh, that's good. dc

[krispos42]

21. Sounds like you need one big rectangular bowl instead! n/t

[bookworm65t]

22. got a greedy one here

I have three of my own. Two are about 13 lbs, the other is 7lbs, and she is hyped-up to begin with. When I pour food into the three dishes, the little one always dives into the bowl with food, then dives again a few seconds later when food is poured into another bowl. The other two are patient to wait those few seconds between pouring food into the bowls, but my little one is very greedy. I suspect that she is eating more than her fair share but I haven't been able to tell yet.

[jobycom]

24. Cat what?

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

[vademocrat]

25. Dogs have owners; cats have staff...

My two cats switch plates halfway through - I know they think that I'm giving the "other one" something better!

[david13]

28. The Grass is Always Greener syndrome. It affects many humans

as well.
But you must understand, cats do not think like us.
dc

[NV Whino]

29. My male cat has to inspect the female's bowl

before he goes to his own. My female has learned to chow down before the male finishes. However, after finishing his bowl, the male always dashes over to lick the other bowl clean. His bowl, of course, still has a few chunks left. It's the unvarying morning ritual in my house. Another part of the ritual is the male chasing his tail in front of the refrigerator while I'm filling the bowls. I have yet to understand the significance of that action.

[LaurenG]

30. Seriously...you don't "own" cats. They "own" you...

:shrug: