There is an uneasy truce in the house between the two dogs and three cats – a truce broken when either Thunder or Max encroaches on the personal space of the other.
Getting to this point has been pretty stressful for Thunder(cat) and he’s lost some weight – likely too because he’s not used to sharing his dry food.
To get his weight back up, I’ve been giving him wet food – he can’t resist the seafood shreds.
But, there’s a problem. If I just leave the wet food out, one of two things will happen. Either he’ll eat his fill for the sitting and then wander off – and the other cats will finish it for him. Or, he’ll overeat to make sure they don’t get it – and then find a nice quiet corner to vomit it right back up.
So, a few times through the day, I’ve been taking the can of cat food to the basement to feed him a reasonable portion. And while this works, it created a new problem. Whenever I move anywhere in the house, if my vector looks even slightly basement-ward, Thunder assumes that I’m going to feed him. If I don’t and I’m doing something else, he gets irritated and takes it out on the dogs. Or will deliberately not use his litter box in some ill-conceived performance art in the basement.
To better regulate his behavior and expectations, I’ve decided to try and train my cat.
Let that sink in a moment.
Now, when I go to feed him, I will call his name (even if he’s right next to me) and ring a bell before heading downstairs with him. Shades of Pavlov, you see.
Unfortunately, this also alerts the other cats and they follow us to stake out positions in some kind of “triangle of barely concealed menace”. So, I have to wait with Thunder until he’s done to keep the peace and prevent any intra-species conflict.
Is it working?
Well, he’s gaining some weight. And seems less annoyed when I don’t fall to his every feeding whim and desire.
I have noticed that he gets calmly interested in me and somewhat affectionate right before it’s a regular feeding time. This increases until it’s annoying for me and I go ahead and feed him.
Which I think means that he’s really training me instead. At least he can’t ring the bell on his own – we’d never get a moment’s peace.