No tuna for you

My stomatis cat Geumbi had a round of oral injections last week. I was hesitant because the procedure required anesthesia and was more invasive than giving her a daily dose of steroids mixed in some wet food. Tuna to be precise.

The jokes about cats being particular have held true for Geumbi though not because that's the way cats are. She associated eating with pain. Imagine it. Being so hungry, but your mouth hurting terribly every time you eat. So much so that you stop and start the process of dying. If you're human you go see a doctor. If you're a cat you start to blame the food and mew a lot. 

Over the years her medical problems went untreated she developed a rather neurotic approach to food and she's been literally driving me crazy demanding tuna. I mean right in my face at midnight and 12:15 and 12:16... you get the picture. Whenever she got the least bit hungry she'd stare at her bowl of dry food and then go about demanding the wet. Never mind that since last August, she's only gotten wet food at medicine time. She has failed to draw the time and food association, believing that her mews eventually resulted in what she want.

Thus, this week has been off to a sad start for Geumbi. There was no tuna on Sunday and Monday. And no tuna Tuesday or Wednesday. She's quiet now, subdued and even calm. It's strange for me not to see her wondering around the house neurotically trying to make tuna appear in her bowl. I feel almost bad, guilty, like I've snuffed out her pleasure for life. I especially feel this way when she's lying flopped on her cardboard scratchy thing, the one nearest to her food bowl, head on her paws ever the optimist that tuna will appear.

She mews when her bowl is empty and though I shouldn't probably feed her when she demands and yet, by filling her bowl with dry, she's learning that dry is all there is. It's what's for dinner. She flops back on the scratcher after her bowl is full while Bear is like "food, fuck yeah!" Eventually she gets up and eats some dry food. Eventually she gives up and comes for a snuggle. Then it's back to the bowl watch. Because you never know, tuna might show up and she's not going to be absent if it does.