Cats Are So Cute, Don´t You Think:?

I once had a disagreement in Redlands with one of my dogs about ownership of a pork tenderloin. I had ingested too many martinis to handle the situation like an adult, but the dog was sober and, while he lost possession of the pork, I was the one who had to go to the emergency room for stitches.

Last night I planned a simple dinner which was supposed to make itself while I watched a couple of episodes of The Simpsons. I used the rice cooker to make some rice and steam some broccoli and, when I thought it was close to ready, I threw some some pork chops on the kitchen grill. When the meat was done, I discovered I hadn´t turned the rice cooker on. So I closed the grill to keep the meat warm and the cats away, and went back to the TV room to wait out the rice.

Twenty or thirty minutes later, when the rice and broccoli were done, I was preparing a plate, and it seemed to me that there should have been one more pork chop on the grill. Just at that time I heard the most feral growl, a sound so strange that, for a few seconds, I wasn´t even sure what it was or where it was coming from. Then I realized it was our cat, Malibu Stacy, who was on the kitchen floor just a few feet away with the missing pork chop in her mouth. The sound she was making said she was a natural predator, but she didn´t have a clue what to do with her catch except growl at it while she was clenching it in her teeth. Fortunately she surrendered it much more readily than the dog did.

It seemed almost impossible that she was able to pull the pork chop out of the grill, if only because there isn´t much space between the two plates when it is closed, but that is what she had to have done. A few minutes later I come back in the kitchen and the other cat, Malu, who is nothing if not a quick learner, was on the counter trying to get one of the two remaining chops from between the grill plates.

When I want to wash those damn grill plates, it seems like they never cool down, and I usually just leave them for the next day. I´m impressed that Malibu waited until the grill was cool enough before she made her move.

The cats aren't starving. It must just be the joy of the hunt.