25 March, 2007
Simon Sunday: Guess Who ELSE Likes His Morning Cuppa?
Day Seventy-Six: He's Lucky He's So Cute
Originally uploaded by Planet Vicster.
This morning, just after I poured myself a cup of English Breakfast Tea and sat at my desk, Simon let me know that it was time to play with him. OK, no problemo, I hadn't spent much quality time with him during the week, so we sat down to a rousing game of Stalk The Pipe Cleaner.
Soon, Billie woke up from her post-breakfast nap and was intrigued by our game. She's not too much on "interactive play" but she gives it a go every so often. So she jumped down from her bed and ran over and patted the pipe cleaner with her paw (this is how she "captures her prey", evidently). She'd tap the pipe cleaner then run away before it could...oh hell, I have no idea what retribution she was expecting from a length of fuzz-covered wire.
While this was going on, Simon left us to play, which was kind of nice of him to let Billie have mom-and-me time with me (usually he insists on including himself which drives Billie away). As usual, Billie quickly bored of the activity and wanted to be left alone.
Simon walked past me, turned to look at the pipe cleaner in my hand and headed over to his pot of cat grass. When I looked at him, something didn't seem quite right. On closer inspection, he had a wet spot on his chin. A wet spot that, curiously, was THE SAME COLOUR AS MY TEA. No wonder he was being so kind to Billie: While she had me distracted, he helped himself to my cup of tea! My tea!
Now, I probably should have been concerned that the caffeine and whatnot might be bad for him, but he's gotten into so many bags, bowls, cups and dishes of my food and suffered little to no consequences that I long ago put away the phone number to the emergency vet clinic. And yet, this week pet caregivers have been given a sobering dose of reality that the stuff our furkids are "supposed" to eat can be deadly.
I wonder what kind of testing these pet food manufacturers do on the stuff that goes into the food they make. If they do perform quality and safety tests on food, would it have even picked up on the rat poison in the imported wheat? Incidents like this and the horrible spinach/e-coli contamination are a frightening reminder that our food supply is terribly insecure. It gives me pause every time I pour kibble into Simon and Billie's dishes, wondering if the corn used in their kibble has been contaminated with a deadly mold, or, when I prepare my own supper, I wonder if I've washed the greens in my salad sufficiently. The truth is, we've become so disconnected from our food supply that we have no idea what all is in our food and whether or not the meal we're sitting down to is going to make us sick. Or worse.
It's something to think about while shopping and preparing a meal, but not something to dwell too long on. But I give my thanks every day that I have Billie around so that maybe one day she'll be comfortable playing interactively with me (and, dare I hope, Simon). And I'm grateful for every mischievous deed Simon does; even if it means I have to make a new cup of tea.
Labels: Billie, cats, family, furkids, gratitude, Simon, Simon Sunday
~~ victoria on 9:13 PM ~~ 0 comments
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