My cat is a prepper!

[LouKy]

As soon as she can see the bottom of her bowl, even if there's food in there, she will pester me to refill it. When She sees me refill it, she doesn't eat it, she just likes to see that it's filled. LOL I guess that's what happens you adopt a starving stray kitty. They become preppers. :-)

[thundercloud]

As soon as she can see the bottom of her bowl, even if there's food in there, she will pester me to refill it. When She sees me refill it, she doesn't eat it, she just likes to see that it's filled. LOL I guess that's what happens you adopt a starving stray kitty. They become preppers. :-)

From what I have seen this is a fairly common habit of an adopted cat that that had been starved before you received it.

Our home is a cat magnet. Usually in the spring or fall people in the larger towns in my area will load up their unwanted critters and head for our little town. They dump off dogs and sometimes just throw the cats out the vehicle window. My newest adopted cat still goes ballistic at the sight of a pickup truck even though she normally has a sweet personality.

Before a dumped off cat gets to our home it has to run a gauntlet of dogs and cat haters. The cats that survive this are usually smarter than the average cat.

The exception to this rule was a cat we named Smokey. When he showed up here he was very starved and very sick. He was also quite insane, so insane that I could never accurately judge his intelligence. Oh..... I did not mention he was wilder than a March hare. He would run at the sight of any human.

Gracie was the only human he would allow to get close to him. He would also come to her when she called. So she put him in our cat carrier and I took him for a long stay at the vet.
he loved the vets office. They put him in a tiny cage where none of his imaginary monsters could get at him but most important of all was that his food was right there 24/7.

He kept his passion for food his entire life. He had to go check on his food bowl every 10 to 15 minutes. He was exceptionally fat but I did not have the heart to reduce his food portions. His weight did not seem to affect him health wise. Even when he was old he could run like the wind. I think he was the fastest cat in our town. He would run whenever the voices in his head told him to and they would tell him at least a dozen times a day.

His weight did not kill him a Pit Bull Lab mix did. The Pit had to have another dog backing him up to do it because Smokey had run him out of the yard when he tried attacking him previously. Usually a dog would see him as a fat, retarded, clumsy,victim. A dog would then attack only to find that something totally insane had gotten ahold of them. Smokey had built up a lot of muscle from all that running. He also had this habit of crossing his eyes in those moments of total insanity. He would rake them furiously with all four paws while chewing on them with his teeth. I sometimes wondered if he thought the dog was food.

After an incident like this the dog would run off. Sometimes they would look back as if they were thinking " Just what in the hell was that that got ahold of me!"

Why did we keep a cat like this? Well readers you will not believe this but Smokey was the most friendly and gentle cat we ever owned. You just never put him in a situation where he thought he was being attacked. He was useless as a mouser because he wanted to be friends with the mice. There was even one time a young Robin landed in the yard and there I saw Smoke trying to befriend it while mom and poppa robin were raising hell with him. He eventually just slowly walked away from the young robin and went about his business of wanting in the house to check on his food bowl.

We kept Smokey because his antics were funny and he made us laugh at least once a day. He had other habits that were not so funny but he had a good long life at our home. far longer than it would have been had we not taken him in.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

My big dogs are just the opposite. They eat it as soon as they see it no matter how many times you refill it. I think St Bernards and Great Pyrenees dogs just like to store it "on the hoof" for future use.

[Junie]

The mice that live here (uninvited) are preppers, too. One of my boys found about a cup of dogfood in his boot yesterday and another boy found his hat full today. I think I figured out why we've been going through dogfood so fast lately.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

We adopted a female chihuahua mix 20yrs ago that was so thin. And she would take any food, even bread, and eat it until she was stuffed, then bury whatever she couldn't eat. She had been found dumped with some puppies, and they had all died. We ended up adopting her, called her Mama dog, but she didn't live for very many years because she was so old to begin with. She was a sweet little dog. She took in a litter of kittens and tried to nurse them. I think of her when my own chihuahuas turn their noses up at kibble or other types of food that doesn't appeal to them. She would have never done that. Now I know that Mama Dog was simply a canine prepper.

[TEX]

DH swears our cat sits by his full bowl and whines because the cat wants his food freshly touched by the hand of man. Sure enough if you go over and "stir" his kibbles he is happy. Strange cat.

[Deberosa]

DH swears our cat sits by his full bowl and whines because the cat wants his food freshly touched by the hand of man. Sure enough if you go over and "stir" his kibbles he is happy. Strange cat.

Our cats do the same thing!

[DaNgEr_KiTtY]

Since we rescue stray cats & raise their kittens for adoption I have had to deal with similar issues in the past. Some of our rescues would eat their food as if it was the last meal they would ever get. Even with plenty of food in the bowl they would eat it so fast I was worried they might choke.

My solution was to place multiple food sources in the cats area. Everywhere the cat was there was food nearby so they usually start to relax a bit about it. Then again if this behavior is not a problem for you then I would enjoy the interaction/communication between you & your cat. My cats have their signals for me too & its nice to be on the same page with them.

[Gracie]

Lol, our one small framed black cat, lots of times when I go into the kitchen will fuss @ me softly, till I go out on the back porch, and shake the food dispenser a little so more food will scoot forward in the bowl. It's a self-fed dispenser, but Snicky won't let it work on it's own, I have to do it for her. She is sweet natured, and this is the only thing she demands a bit of help with...sometimes I wonder who's the pet and who's the owner...LOL, and she is just one of 3 lady cats we have, along with the little doxy who moved in on us...to say it gets interesting @ times is an understatement!:)

[DaNgEr_KiTtY]

Funny you should say that Gracie. We recently rescued a Yorky that weighed 8 lbs when we got him & 6.9 lbs after we cut all the goo & matted hair off. My cats are used to going in & out freely. The rescued cats have the double garage. This new dog chases them & like a sissy & backs down when my cats turn around & hiss. Its really creating a problem cause now my cats do not want to come in or go out. I may have to leave the dog in a room with the cats for a few days & see if he barks at em any more.....lol!

[Gracie]

Danger Kitty, Oh, my...LOL, you'll have to let us know how that works out! Funny that you mention that, isn't it something how adding one small dog into a mix of cats, and everything changes, some for the good and the rest, the jury is still out on that one! Our 2 ornery sisters (have resided here the longest), think they rule the roost & spat with each other as to who is the 'boss'. In moves Snicky a little black kitten (the Lady post-mistress found her crying & all but drowned @ the post-office back door during a down-pour). The sisters are incensed, how dare an interloper move into their home! The funny thing is Snicky is more agile, quicker and smarter than the sisters, so she thwarts their attempt to attack her on a regular basis, and they get sooo mad! Last, but certainly not least Dolly 'The Equalizer' decides to move in with us. The sisters certainly don't like her and are halfway afraid of her (Dolly is indifferent to them, except when she thinks they are after her food, or trying to get on our bed, errr, her bed, too). The big exception is, if either of the sis's try to attack Snicky when Dolly is in the house...she raises holy cain, barking and lunging @ them, this scares them half to death, and they all but fall over themselves trying to get away. I don't think Dolly would actually hurt them, but they sure think she will. Snicky and Dolly seem to have an understanding of their place in their home, and almost appreciate each other (from a bit of a distance).

[kfander]

My cats always get nervous when the bowl gets much below half full. It doesn't matter how big of a bowl it is, either. One of them, in particular, will always come and get me if 6:00 pm comes around and I haven't given them their canned food yet (since they've gotten older, I've started feeding them canned food as well as kibble, to be sure they are hydrated). She is usually within fifteen minutes of 6:00, and will pester me for it even if she has no intention of eating. Sometimes, as I'm putting the food into the bowls, she will go lie down on her cat bed, with no intention of eating anything. Still, she wants it there.