Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hungry Hungry Ham Cat

Hello!
It is time for blogging. I haven't had an official "blog" before, I've been doing this on my myspace, but I think it's time now.
I have 2 cats... Ham, and Samus. Right now, I'm going to talk about Ham, because she is harassing me. Every morning, as soon as I wake up, she starts following me, and screaming. It's meowing, really, but it's this kind of urgent, demanding meow that makes it more like she's just yelling at me. She does this meowing more or less constantly. She does it when I wake up in the morning until I leave for work. She does it when I come home from work, and doesn't stop until she has decided that I've given her enough attention. She does it any time I get up from the couch, any time I go to the bathroom, and any time she feels like she hasn't yelled at me recently enough, or been petted recently enough, or thinks there is something interesting happening that she isn't involved in. And, most importantly, when I go to the kitchen.
Every single time I go into the kitchen, no matter where Ham is or what she is doing, she will appear right behind me and yell. She will never stop yelling until I feed her. My wonderful loving boyfriend Christopher thinks I'm making her fat, because I give in and feed her when she yells at me, but if I don't, she KEEPS YELLING! I even have a special blue bowl that I leave in the corner of the kitchen to put shredded cheese in for Ham, because it's in a resealable bag, and I can just get a little pinch out and put it in her bowl, and as long as I am out of the kitchen before she's done eating it, she will stop yelling.
Ham has also has a history of stealing food. If we buy new cat food, and don't put it away IMMEDIATELY, she will chew the bag open, and eat as much as she can. I once left a bowl of ramen unattended while I went to the bathroom, and when I came back she had eaten almost half of it! I once found her gnawing on an apple like she was a starving animal, which she is not. If I'm eating yogurt, she will physically force me to give it to her. She will paw at me, and shove her face in the yogurt cup while I'm eating it, so I have to be constantly on guard, or eat it standing up. I usually give in, and give her little samples of whatever I eat, because it seems to keep her happy.... I'm starting to think maybe I'm just encouraging her food-stealing ways.
This morning I woke up, took a shower, all the while listening to her wander around the bathroom meowing demandingly. I brushed my teeth and hair while she stomped on the counter trying to get me to pet her. I went into the kitchen to get some food ready for my lunch at work. I decided on a peanut butter sandwich. I took out the bag of bread, and pulled out a couple slices. I was running a little late, so I figured I would take the bread and peanut butter with me to work and make my sandwich at lunch time, so I went to do that and mistakenly left the bread unattended. I have never seen Ham eat bread, so I didn't think it would be a problem....
I WAS WRONG!
When I came back, she was on the kitchen counter licking my bread! I started walking toward her to take the bread away, but she grabbed the whole slice in her mouth and RAN. She jumped up onto our big brown chair in our living room, and the majority of the bread slice broke off and fell on the chair, but she took the rest behind the chair so I couldn't get it. I had to climb over the chair, into the awkward space between it and the window, and get the bread back so she didn't make a horrible mess. I got out a NEW piece of bread, and successfully took it to work to make my sammich.
So, the morning worked out okay. Usually, everything does work out okay, but I feel Ham's hunger escalating all the time. I don't know how to fix it. I have tried not giving her food, and she just keeps yelling at me. I have tried just petting her instead of giving her food, and she just keeps yelling at me. Nothing makes it better, and giving her what she wants seems to make it worse.
I think if I passed out while Christopher wasn't home, she would freak out and start eating me.

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