Welcome back. Now, where’s our food?

Cats have a way of reminding you where you stand

This week Lily and I made a quick trip back to southeast Missouri for meetings at Southeast Missouri State University, the monthly work night at the Malden Air Base Museum, and to spend some time with her mom. When we returned home to Columbia this evening we were greeted by two somewhat attitudinal co-kittens. Even though no one starved to death and they had plenty of company, they were not ready to immediately forgive us for our seeming 48 hours of feline abandonment.

As always, Layla warmed up first. She typically handles alone time much better than her friend. One of her secret coping strategies is the toy puppy given to her as a six week old kitten by a member of my former church. Although she does not play with it as often as she once did, Layla still totes her emotional support plushie with her wherever she goes. It was hanging out in her bed when we arrived, and apparently comforted her enough that she was willing to let us play with her in just a couple of minutes.

Raya, on the other hand, was all business. As we entered, she looked at us sternly, went over to the food tower and made it clear that if we did not feed her immediately, our blood would be on our own heads. She is the disciplinarian of the household, and was not about to let something as small as a five hour car trip delay us from carrying out our sacred niblet provision duties.

In our own defense, I will say that Raya has a very short attention span. She and Layla had full water bowls and the neighbors were right next door. They were properly fed before we left with more than enough to last them overnight.

However, such efforts were not enough. Normally dinner is at 6 p.m. Tonight they got fed at 9 p.m. The three hour delay nearly led to their starvation and demise. It was a tragedy of immense proportions and the glares we received were well deserved.