Recently, Tiny the one-year old kitten has developed a keen awareness and passion for fine foods. Just look at the picture at right to see her ogling Ashleigh’s frozen waffle. In the past, we have always kept the cat treats on the counter next to the jug of regular cat food. One day about two weeks ago, I went to feed the cats and noticed that the treat bag was missing. I thought this odd, but did not really dwell on it, and ended up just opening another bag. A couple of days later, I noticed that this treat bag was missing as well.
I inquired of both Ashleigh and Tiny to see if they had moved them. Baby is a well-behaved cat, usually not prone to much mischief, so I didn’t even bother asking her. Ashleigh didn’t know where it was, but eventually she found them downstairs on the floor. The bag was unmolested – so I just returned it to the countertop. Bag number one was still missing in action at this point.
Then a few days ago, the bag disappeared yet again. This time I was certain that Tiny was responsible. I asked her but she had nothing to say. Later that day, I was cleaning the cats’ litter boxes when I noticed that under the stairwell was what appeared to be a treat bag. I could not reach it from the laundry room side where the litter boxes are, so I had to go through the closet that we had built under the stairs. Not an easy task – but it did yield an interesting conclusion.
It was in fact a treat bag, and it had been chewed through completely – and it was empty. Treat bag #2 was also found later that day. It was in the basement, but not yet stashed in a hiding place; it was chewed through, but not yet empty. Tiny apparently figured out that chewing through the bag was easier that unlocking the press-and-seal opening. I knew that I had a winning journal entry with this story so I snapped a photo of the two chewed-through bags. While I was taking the photo above, Tiny jumped up onto the counter and posed with the existing full treat bag.
Foolishly, I took no further action. The next morning, treat bag #3 was still on the counter, but also chewed through. It was still mostly full so I removed the contents and put them in a ziploc bag, hiding them in the cupboard.
So, have I won? you might ask. Most likely I have just created a new challenge for Tiny: how to get into the cupboard…
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