We found a kitten wandering the streets of Detroit many years ago. He was right on the edge of being feral. We cleaned him up, took him to the Vet, and eventually gave him to my parents who loved cats. He eventually warmed up to humans, but he kept one feral-trait he learned on the streets, which was to bury his uneaten food. Of course being that he was indoors, there was no dirt to bury his food with, but he’d spend a few minutes pawing at the floor attempting to cover whatever food he didn’t finish eating. He did that until the day he died.
Jim B.
That's funny. My big orange cat who died years ago used to make those burying motions over food, but it wasn't to save leftovers. It was his way of REJECTING food.
If you put food he did not like in his bowl, he would 'bury' it while loudly complaining, and he would NOT return and eat it later. Good food was left unburied if he did not eat it all.
A funny story about Simba. He lived at my parents house because he was born there when I was in college. When he was about 10 (he lived to 16), they got a gigantic Great Pyrenees dog. Simba HATED that dog, even though the dog was always friendly to him. He bullied her relentlessly, and was always looking for ways to be a jerk.
In 2007, my parents decided to have steaks for Thanksgiving instead of the traditional turkey. Simba HATED beef, and refused to ever eat it. He loved turkey, though. This was only a few weeks after I moved back to Indiana after living in New Mexico for a couple of years.
The whole time we ate, Simba loudly demanded food, which I didn't give because I knew he would reject it. I planned to give it to the dog, who was out in the yard while we ate. When everyone finished, I gathered up a BIG plate of leftover steak for the dog. Simba followed me to the dog's food bowl, loudly demanding the meat.
I thought that maybe he had changed his mind about beef during my time in New Mexico, so I put some in his bowl. Nope, he loudly rejected it, 'buried' it, and walked away loudly complaining the whole time.
So, I took the meat and put all of it in the dog's bowl. I went to the kitchen to put the plate in the sink, and was going to go out and get the dog after that so she could eat. I looked back in the room where the dog's food bowl was located and saw that cat at the dog bowl gulping down that meat as fast as he could swallow it! He may not have wanted it, but damn it there was no way he was going to let that dog enjoy it!
I got the dog, and by the time I finally got her back in the house, Simba had eaten every scrap of meat. The dog saw him sitting by the bowl, licking his lips with a smug look on his face. She looked in the empty bowl, then looked up at me with the SADDEST face I have ever seen on a dog. She looked like she was going to start crying. I've never seen the cat looking so pleased with himself. Mean little *******.
