[NotGolfer]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

Sounds like the OP has--well--a cat. And those of us who have a cat learn very quickly who is in charge. (hint: it isn't the human).

Our cat (a rescue job from a St. Paul, MN animal shelter), has a way of interpreting the rules so that they favor her. For example, my wife tired of Kitty wanting to be fed every time my wife was cleaning in the kitchen. So she laid down the rule. No food until AFTER the dishwasher closes. She caught on pretty quick, only she interpreted it to mean that EVERY time the dishwasher closed, she was going to get fed.

Also, just accept the fact that every cat has expensive taste. At first we gave her some expensive wet food as an occasional treat. Wasn't long until she expected the expensive stuff for EVERY meal. Didn't work to not give her the stuff she wanted and she wasn't fooled one bit by being given a less expensive wet food. She wanted the top-shelf stuff and would either meow incessantly at one or the other of us until she got it, or would sit staring at her dish with her pathetic I'm-just-a-poor-starving-kitty look, looking at us when one of us were in the area and giving us the most forlorn, sad-sounding meow that you can imagine.

Oh--and things happen on HER timetable, not ours. If Kitty gets hungry at 3:00 AM, she'll wake me up to get fed. She has a sort of graduated-intervention way of doing it. If pats and meows don't do it, expect a wet nose in the ear. Covering up doesn't help. She'll look for any bit of exposed skin and bite it--not hard, but noticeable. And if THAT doesn't work, she rolls out the big guns. One tactic that just about always works is picking up my glasses from the nightstand and dropping them onto the floor. Or, if she can't find the glasses (or if I put them in some inaccessible place before I go to bed) she's discovered that a TV remote dropped on the floor will eject the two "AA" batteries onto the floor, which she then bats under just about any piece of furniture in the area, which is a guarantee that her human will throw in the towel and feed her just to get a little sleep.

I heard it summed up perfectly once: "Dogs have owners. But cats have staff". True words.

We've had both dogs and cats. They're both intelligent in their own way and have some tendencies that are acceptable to being pets. HOWEVER, it's amazing how cats become "in charge". Your post is funny but the antics would drive me bonkers. Our daughter once had 4 cats plus their dog in an apartment. Yes, you read that right. They're down to one cat plus the dog now....but due to the other 3 either passing and one needing to go to a farm instead. The 3 cats would lie on the floor outside her bedroom and meow and do the foot under the door thing. The meowing was so pathetic as to try to make one feel sorry for them. They had the best of owners and were plump. Our cat was independent as cats tend to be. She "taught" us to play fetch with little nerf balls. After some time the balls would disappear to ???? We found only some when we moved. Where the others went---would be any human's guess. The late evening Zoomies were hysterical to watch. Hope you find a happy food choice for yours.