Putney Swope

Down here in the South, an old wives tale says, "You'll die if you eat butter after the cat has licked it". But then who ever listens to old southern wives? Nobody, not even old southern husbands.

{/me says: "It's a myth."}

{old southern wife answers:" Yeth?"}

godfry n. glad

My cat has not shown much preference for butter. Ours sits out, easily accessible, without his interference. He _will_ however, lose his otherwise impeccible manners if any kind of shellfish, and particularly scallops are involved. I, the cook, have even had my thigh tattooed with cat claws because I held the lusted after scallops.

Also, any open glass with water, particularly with ice cubes, is _his_ drinking source. I've gone to keeping my water in a travel cup, just so I don't have to wonder whether it's been blessed with cat spit.

We took him in as a street urchin, but it was obvious he'd had another home at one time, in that he was not phased about dogs (any dog's usual lunge to get the cat to run and thus fun to chase, causes him to turn and stroll _toward_ the lunging dog with steely gaze fixed and a low, throaty growl), he knew the meaning of the word, "NO!", and he also knew that if the refrigerator opened, there was a distinct possibility of free food. In his time on the street, he'd become fairly proficient at capturing and killing squirrels, something I'd not seen up 'til then. Most cats can't keep up with squirrels, but he was bringing in one a week (much to the consternation of my wife) for the first six weeks. It all dropped off to next to nothing (an occasional mouse or bird) once we'd fattened him up....

A recent article on cat ownership noted that it is usually women who seem to be cat owners, while men predominate as dog owners. The female author mused about what it is that most men don't like about cats. Her answer? The dislike is fuelled by envy. Cats get to run around all night, sleep all day, ignore her if they want, eat generally what they want, take naps at will, get lots of attention without basically doing anything, clean their butts in public....AND she thinks they're cute doing it. What guy wouldn't be envious?

godfry

oriecat

Godfrey - LOL! Sounds like a great article.


Well Putney, I'm not dead yet!

Terracotta

My cats are evil. You can't leave ANYTHING out and step into the other room, or else they're on it. We call them the Kentucky Breadhunters because of their strange affinity for bread. We can't leave any kind of bread out or it will be eaten. Sandwich loaves, bagels, tortillas, rolls, anything - if it's not secured away (and they'll even get up into the cabinets to get it, forcing us to use babyproofing latches), they'll get into it in less than 5 minutes.

Babylon Sister

My 12 year old cat Spunky doesn't really go for the butter, but she will run over you for stuffed green olives, especially the garlic stuffed ones. I didn't know this until I dropped one on the floor and got bitten when I tried to take it away.

We always had cats when we were younger. Usually Siamese. One big old male would rip the kitchen apart for avacados. My Mom hid them in the tea towel drawer but Joker could pull it open. I remember mornings when the kitchen was covered in green gunk. He also loved soda crackers.

beth

My cat was feral as a kitten. We recued it from the pound. It only eats cat food and tuna(canned). I've even tried feeding it fresh fish, but no bite. It will however devour my fresh herbs that I have growing inside my kitchen. It has killed almost every plant I've grown in here. It also eats my miniature roses outside.

lugotorix

Strange. My cat, Lily Underfoot, always goes for the heads first. She often runs out of steam before she gets to the end, so I usually have one or two rodent butts laying around the barn. (It's nice to know she gives a rat's ass about her work... ) I'm always amazed at how neat she is, too -- no blood, no gore, just a neatly truncated mouse hiney.

lugotorix

dangin

I'm not a slob, so the lid is always on the butter, but my cats both love to lick butt. . .er.

Also, I have one who dips his paw in the water dish and drinks the water from his paw. The other is grossed out by paw water, so he wants me to turn on a quick drip in the bathtub all day and he drinks the stream of water coming out of the fawcett.

My cats get on the counters, tables, couches, beds and everything all the time. They're free range kitties. Not only that, but I have two different inside doors with kitty doors. One to the basement, so they can go up and down regardless of the door being shut, and one into the storage room where their litter box is.

I'm my cats' bitch.

Loren Pechtel

My experience is that cats show a very definite preference for water that is cold. If I ever have a cat again (I'm married to someone who definitely doesn't want a cat in the house.) I'm getting it one of those refrigerated water dishes.

Loren Pechtel

I think I can top these. My cat loved *YELLOW* paper circles (or at least paper circles from a pile of old yellow paper, she never encountered any others), the stuff that you empty out of the tray of the 3-hole punch. The normal white ones didn't interest her. Once when the tray spilled she dashed in and ate the yellow ones, leaving the white ones (both types had been punched.) She had no interest in whole sheets of the paper, though.

Note: Cats are colorblind.