Leroy was a plastic eater. Actually, Leroy was an everything eater. He was a supremely hungry cat. I once found him, and his sister, Nora, fully in a giant bag of cat food, their tiny kitten tummies all bloated, continuing to munch their way through the bag like pac men. He continued to show poor judgement by eating a toxic plant at 5 months old, then all the other plants until my house was bereft, also known as "cat proof". Many years later when I took up growing food, Leroy took delight in decimating all the little sprouts waiting to go outside. Leroy would thieve kale and broccoli from our plates at supper, peanut butter from the jar if left open, cheese, bread, all the usual culprits. He'd stalk around on the counter as we made meals waiting for a morsel to make off with. There seemed no limit to all the weird and uncatlike things he would eat. In one famous incident he stole an entire loaf of bread cooling on the counter and mantled over it with a ferocious growl to all who dared come near. His favorite was nachos and beans. His menace progressed to the point where we trained him to wait on a mat to receive treats (which deteriorated into a chaotic whirlwind of dogs and cat diving for treats, and a very unrelaxing but admittedly hilarious meal for me. So we phased that out). On nacho night, Leroy would still wait by the door for tiny nachos with refried beans. In contrast, Fruitcake was repulsed by bananas (but liked mushrooms), The Little One disdained all such foolish behavior all together, and Nora, in her short time, except for being caught half way down a 20 pound bag of kibble with her brother, exercised reasonable control. Leroy paid for his indiscretionary ways. All pet care scenarios had to be prefixed by strict warnings of his penchant for eating things. Rarely we would meet other cat owners who would commiserate, sharing that their cat, too, ate plastic. A moment of jubilation (this is a strange feeling of community when you find a fellow pet owner who shares the experience of whatever malign behaviors your own pet exhibits) would soon be followed by the depression of realizing they meant their cat licks plastic or even chews holes in it, but doesn't maniacally ingest it then relentlessly puke on your computer or white knitting project. On the positive side, Leroy was not picky, he readily accepted all and any foods, which made feeding him rather easy most of his life. Picky eaters take years off my life. So it was with some relief and honor to Leroy that we discovered that the minxes are exploratory and curious eaters, open to trying new things. They enjoy a munch of spinach here, a purloined bite of leftover lunch there, floor food courtesy of the delighted baby, and bizarrely, licks of peppers, cucumbers, tomatos, apples, STOP! I was greatly relieved to discover that though they like to *play* in plastic bags (strongly discouraged of course), no eating of plastic bags ensued. And we have already discussed the cat grass episode, resultant banishing of plants to the boot room, and subsequent installment of the Leroy screen for round two of cat grass. Since I started writing this, Fontina has, with some delight and defeat on my part, squarely vanquished the Leroy Screen and the plants are re-banished for now until we devise a new system. I feel like my animals keep me clever. But what comes with being open and curious to new tastes and textures is trying out ... non-food items. Gwen innocently warned us on adoption day, but I naively dismissed her ominous words as generic advice: "be careful with the ribbons on those kickers, some cats chew them." Oh. We adopted some cats. But, no worries, I thought, we've always had some toys that are supervision only, so the kickers can come out for human play. Then the bouncy ribbon wand had to go away as the string got severed -and repaired - and severed - and repaired - and severed. Slowly the feathers Fontina is so fond of went away as she exercised poor judgement on drawing the line between play and ingestion. Little girls bring their dream catcher home from school, first proud, then perplexed and sad as we contemplate where to hang it. "Outside?" I suggest. Which brings me to how our charging cables have come to share a drawer with our forks and spoons, and how headphone wires must never see the light of day. It started innocently enough. As I laid awake one morning, Fontina came to knead and snuggle, as she does. She spied my headphone cord, and gave it a bat or two, then a bite. "Hey!" I said, "Not for eating!" And I tucked it away under my pillow. Later that day, another set of headphones mysteriously "stopped working" and as I got a snack and unpacked school things I saw the new headphones sitting on the counter for approximately a millisecond as the packaging was carried to the recycling. I saw Fontina materialize on the counter. And then, faster than Aura ingesting a feeding tube, Fontina chewed and swallowed 9 cm of headphone cord. Calls to our wonderful vet ensued. I was elected to Poop Watcher/Disector. The next morning Fontina charmed the vet staff and had a lovely picture of her abdomen taken. That afternoon, she eliminated the wire from her system. Dare I say she has been less enthusiastic about non food items since? Probably not, the minx. I'll spare you the photo I took of the wire after it passed through a feline digestive tract (and was measured, just to be sure). Rest assured Fontina is quite well (and was 3.2 kg as of November 5). I tell this story aware that it might make us look like amateurs, which we are not, I assure you. But I do draw your intention to our very first blog post in which I shared our wish list for a new cat. And this, from my early communications with TinyKittens, "Generally we will do well with a snugly, social, somewhat mischievous personality." We got what we asked for! We're experimenting with food puzzles to keep them busy!
P.S. As as special bonus for waiting SOOOO LONG for this post, as sometimes these stories must ferment, you can now join us here for updates, too!
32 Comments
Loreen Suckley
12/4/2018 18:31:59
the "you can now join us here for updates, too! " isn't working
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Brie & Fontina
12/4/2018 18:37:41
Oops! Should work now!
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Dorothy
12/4/2018 18:32:32
I went through similar tribulations with cats wanting to chew wires--until I discovered Bitter Apple. It's a substance used by dog handlers at shows to discourage the dogs from chewing on themselves and messing up their perfectly coifed hair. I soak a cotton ball and wipe it on any new wires that come into the house. It also works being sprayed on things like plants and plastic! It obviously tastes awful. I believe it's available at Amazon and probably pet stores. Great story BTW, and wonderful fix! What beauties these two have become.
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Brie & Fontina
12/4/2018 18:39:33
Ah yes, bitter apple, we know it well. Sadly we emptied our bottle to no avail on the plants, but will probably give it another go on the wires before more drastic measures.
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carolyn
1/1/2019 19:37:54
After having multiple cats for well over 30 years (usually 4 at a time), one of the current two started chewing through electrical cords when he was still just a kitten, amazingly never getting badly shocked, or I suppose he might have stopped! After chewing threw 4 plugged in electrical cords, several others that were not plugged in, 3 computer cables, the clock radio antenna, the stereo wire to the speakers, I covered every cable and cord in the entire house with Chew Safe cord covers -- that worked fine for a month or two, until he decided that was good to chew as well. Last January, after he got sick twice one morning, I discovered a piece of the Chew Safe in what he had thrown up, then looked more thoroughly at what had come up earlier, and found another small piece -- at that point I took him down to the vet for her to take xrays, and there were a couple more pieces inside, but she hoped they would pass, after repeated xrays for the next two mornings, one had not moved, and he ended up needing surgery to remove it from his stomach, after spending a night in the hospital, coming home with a lovely three inch incision down his then very bare belly, and feeling quite poorly. Now, once again covered back up with his long fur thankfully, but as his vet said, "until I need to do this again." Every cord/cable is now covered with something called Split Wire Loom (had to order it online), which comes in a variety of different diameters, and that has been secured with electrical tape -- knock on wood, it seems to have defeated him, though I hope I don't jinx things by saying that. I'm simply passing along what I have learned with him over the last couple of years, as he has used up a number of his nine lives, and he is only 2 1/2 actual years, in case it might help you out! These days, he is eating through numerous other cat toys, that none of his predecessors ever did -- they might have licked things to death, but never eaten large chunks out of them, whether fabric, rubber, hard plastic, and I've lost count how many have been thrown out. The most recent was a rubber ball that had little round bumps all around it, so that when it was thrown it didn't roll smoothly, rather bounced every which way -- he at off all but three of those round 'bumps,' and I was not able to locate all of them, but the vet did not see the need for more xrays because of the size of them, and the un-eaten other twin ball was disposed of promptly as well. Yesterday he destroyed yet another fabric covered catnip toy, leaving the inside black/gray catnip dust as a pile all over the carpet, but if I take away all of their toys, he starts to eat my books.....
Kimberley
12/4/2018 18:36:20
Oh my word never pictured wee little Fontina for a wire ingester... I just tried your Facebook link and it still didn't work... I'm glad the girlie is ok.. love them both... hopefully no more incidents.. at least for a few more months...
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Suze
12/4/2018 18:39:39
Could have been worse, mine did/does shoes. There is no poop watch involved with shoes. Surgery was the only option. He has the distinction of being the only cat in the vet practice to have parts of a shoe removed from his stomach. Lesson learned, all shoes are out of reach.
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Brie & Fontina
12/4/2018 18:40:37
Oh, yikes. I'm sorry!
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Leilalee
12/4/2018 18:46:58
Hurray, news again :D I can imagine, that though it reads funny afterwards, it probably was not half as funny while you were waiting for Fontina to get the cable out... "Minxes" seems to be quite a fitting nickname! I am happy that so far, the cats I owned only showed a disproportionate like for non-cat, but at least edible and non-toxix stuff, bread and cookies have been absolute favorite.
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Susan
12/4/2018 18:54:06
Fontina! You minx!
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Kat
12/4/2018 19:57:24
Oh, I'm so glad she's OK! Yes, minx indeed. And I'm so glad you're on FB, too. More of the girls is always a plus.
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Susan (Suz)
12/4/2018 21:16:55
I have to admit, THIS line made me fall off my chair laughing!
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Dawn
12/5/2018 01:05:47
I hear your pain! I have a plastic and wire eater. New wires entering this house get coated with tabasco sauce (luckily the smell is usually enough to deter chewing) and plastic gets hidden or disposed off as quickly as it comes through the door. Headphones are out and I have recharged a rather weird assortment of items in the off-limits-to-kitties bathroom (phones, cameras, 4' long hedge trimmers..). It's now a habit to consider the thickness of cords when making purchases...
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Hello , You are not alone .I Living in Germany . And we have two Cats....A Tabby " Luna " and a Ginger " Elly " Elly love and eat if I do not see it " Elastic Cord " Elastic from Toys , Cat Three , File Folder and Favorite Elastic are hair ties from my Daughter . If I work on my Sewing Machine ...snip off thread too.....crazy Ginger Girl...
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Susan
12/5/2018 06:03:42
Our Maggie ate a few inches of her rainbow teaser before we realized that we had to keep it locked away. She doesn't care for human food, though, unlike previous cats who stole a pancake off the dining room table and knocked over a full bag of groceries to get to (and through) a loaf of plastic-wrapped bread.
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Alta
12/5/2018 07:36:26
Thanks for the latest update in the girls. Sounds like they are keeping you on your toes. Can’t wait for their exploration of Christmas. Have liked their Facebook page but really look forward to the blog updates and pictures,
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Janet
12/5/2018 10:26:39
To say I "like" your posts is a tremendous understatement. The girls couldn't have found a more loving home which is evidenced by your joyous posts and pictures. Thank you for bringing me (and I'm sure many, many others) so much happiness.
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Laurie
12/7/2018 05:29:41
What a beautiful writer you are! Please tell me you do this for a living? I look forward to reading more stories about these lovely little minxes :)
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Lisa M Zajkowski
12/8/2018 21:21:14
Thank you for the new update. Poor Fontina! Cats give you so much love, yet they can be the death of you sometimes. The story was wonderful, and so frightening too! We know the Torties are always in great hands. Bless Leroy and Nora! One thing strangely stuck in my mind - You bake your own bread? I want to go live in the Yukon with Brie, Fontina, and fresh baked bread! Have a very Merry Christmas, and hopefully, the tree is safe to eat!
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Susan ( LiLSuzQ32)
12/8/2018 23:10:34
Just in case any of you folks "missed it" on Tiny Kittens: When Shelly had an adopter come in for Linus and Lucy, #Auracuda had to be front and center, demanding pets from the new human. The adopter commented about how it was nice to see Aura eating so well, and Shelly went on to explain that not only did little Aura like gushy food, she also liked a lot of "human" food. It seems her particular human-food favorites are oranges and pickles.
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Brie & Fontina
1/8/2019 15:47:01
Ha! Fontina's favorites are cucumbers and peppers. Brie has a sweet tooth.
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Jamie S
12/9/2018 17:59:30
I just adopted a kitten 2 weeks ago and after a few days discovered that she had eaten some of the elastic off a cat tunnel toy and then part of the elastic on a cat toy wand. Needless to say that resulted in some toys being banned and anything elastic being cut off. Luckily it didn't set well in her stomach and she threw it all up. They sure do like to keep us jumping. Glad to hear Fontina survived her episode too!
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Susan
12/14/2018 10:32:35
Shades of my dear Orlando, a beautiful long-haired white with orange trim Van-alike kitty, with, let us say, exotic tastes. Cantaloupe. Tomatoes. Sweet potato casserole. Green beans. Apple sauce. Strawberries. Stale beer left out for garden slugs.
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Brie & Fontina
1/8/2019 15:50:11
Oh, I love it! Orlando and Leroy would have been kindred spirits!
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12/15/2018 01:23:47
This is a good post. I'm definitely going to look into it.Really very useful tips are provided here.thank you so much.Keep up the good works.
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Cat Nip
12/17/2018 21:02:49
What a beautiful vertebral column you have, Fontina. Pure art!
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