Dept. of Cats. They're Weird.

[kaffy_r]

Notes From Opie Land

Over the last three days, I've discovered that Opie, our 14-year-old ginger kitty loves Marmite. I mean, he looooves Marmite. I discovered this while I was indulging my own love of the stuff (WHAT??!?) over the weekend.

He came up to where I was seated on the livingroom couch and began sniffing at my Marmite-smeared saltine crackers (WHAT!?!??) with the kind of obsessive focus he normally reserves for ... well, he doesn't normally have much obsessive focus for human food. Or he didn't until now. I put some on my fingers, which he proceeded to lick clean. Then he attempted to bite one of the fingers. This didn't go over well with The Producer of Wonderful Brown Pasty Stuff, so he was placed on the floor. Later, however, I decided that Marmite might be one way to get medications into him if absolutely necessary, I told Bob about this. Bob is not a fan of Marmite. Nope. Not a fan. He just looked as if he couldn't figure out who to side-eye more, me or Opie. In the end, I think we both got a serious dose. 

Then yesterday, when I was enjoying some Marmite-free saltine crackers (WHA - oh, never mind.) Opie came up to me, sniffed at the cracker in my hand - then tried to wrestle it from me by biting into a large portion of it. This had the effect of scattering an explosion of saltine cracker across me and the livingroom table, but he was able, with a little help from me, to actually swallow some not-inconsequentially-sized morsels of cracker. 

Opie is a weird ass little cat. 

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

We've had cats who really love Marmite before now, so it must be a thing!

[smallhobbit]

Agreed - it's just slightly offputting to see tongue marks on your breakfast toast.

[kaffy_r]

*snort*

Thank you for giving me my first out-lout laugh of the day!

[kaffy_r]

Indeed - after hearing from you and other commentors, I'm obliged to agree! I wonder what it is about the stuff? I mean, I love it too, but I'm not sure why. Heh.

[st_aurafina]

Opie, you're a weirdo!!

Having said that, I've got a cat who loves vanilla, even when it's not in dairy products. I call him a vanilla hound. Cats are strange little monsters!

[kaffy_r]

Opie, you're a weirdo!!

Heh - you're absolutely right. When we rescued him from a pleasant but slightly unhinged cat hoarder, he was a complete mental and emotional mess. In the 14 years we've had him, some steady love and environment have helped him become a little less squirrely, but he is definitely not a calm, cool and collected cat.

I've got a cat who loves vanilla

I think this is one more piece of evidence about cats' ability to become obsessed with strange human foodstuffs. BB had a cat that went nuts over figs; in fact, according to BB. his fig-loving cat almost went down the back of a refrigerator, after jumping to the top of the thing after a string of figs. Vanilla seems rather an elegant affection. Heh.

[maruad]

Is Marmite really salty? I have found our cat, Noah (we didn't name him), will basically eat anything that is salty...or crunchy for that matter (plastic wrap needs to be carefully disposed of or it reappears in a puddle of cat vomit. He will often browse the floor in the rec room after one of my sons has his friends over for the evening, looking for tiny fragments of chips and nachos. He will also browse the floor int he kitchen, even when there is food in his dish, again looking for salty/crunchy anything.

[kaffy_r]

First off, Noah is a lovely name for a cat. It's very dignified; is your Noah dignified?

In answer to your question, it does have a very salty taste and is relatively high in sodium. Because you only need to put a little on your saltine (or toast), there's not a danger of over-sodiumating yourself (it is too a word), but it's probably not something I'll be feeding Opie a lot of, given that he's a good deal smaller than a human.

PLastic wrap, huh? The "finding things in a puddle of vomit" bit is familiar to us.

[maruad]

I remember the first family I met that were fans except they were not into fandom... I don't think they knew it existed. Their cat was named Precious, the dog was Asimov and their child was Jason (as in Jason and the Argonauts). The child would have been named Frodo but his mother put her foot down. This was back in the mid to late 1970s. If I had been allowed to name the cat it would have been Frodo or Bob (sorry Bob).

Noah is seldom dignified. He may think he is a dog (he was raised with a dog when he was very young). He does think that when your back is turned is the best time to take your seat and/or taste your snack. I don't think he would have licked my slice of bread with butter and apricot jam but I don't want to put it to a test.

[kaffy_r]

I love the names they gave their cats, especially Precious and Asimov. The kid might have loved being Frodo, but I doubt it. And Bob would love knowing that somewhere out there was a cat named Bob. Heh ....

It's amazing how many cats somehow think they are dogs. And of course when the human's back is turned is the best time to take the human's seat and/or snack.

[liadt]

I have a friend with a marmite on toast addicted cat who will steal it off the plate!

[kaffy_r]

Another feline Marmite fan heard from!

[lokifan]

LMAO amazing.

I'm firmly Team Love It and have done that cliche thing of being s Brit living abroad and getting tragic about the lack of access to Marmite.

[kaffy_r]

I'm so glad to hear from another Marmite lover! In finding out more about it, I learned that Canada gets a different formulation of Marmite than is sold in Britain. Not certain about what formulation makes it onto American grocery shelves ... which I need to check the next time I nip out for groceries, since my supply is running low, thanks in part to a certain cat. Heh.