Cat lacking table
manners?
A bib probably won't work but a PlaceTray
will
MetPet.com Staff Writer
We know that cats are nature's delicate
eaters, with their noses and tails in the air they examine every can of food to decide
what to eat for dinner. We also know that they are the messiest eaters we have ever
seen!
This is the basic procedure. Sniff at the food, look up,
sniff again, look around to see if anyone is bothering you, lick all the gravy
and sauce off. Lick your mouth and leave. Come back in a few hours,
warm from snoozing on the back of the couch. Pick up a chunk of food, eat
part of it and deposit the remainder outside of the dish. Pick up a chunk
of kibble, eat part of it and deposit the remainder outside of the dish.
Continue until the less desirable food particles are widely
scattered everywhere but inside the food bowl. Leave again to let
the food dry into unappealing chunks.
After years of table manner lessons, dozens
of different foods and many different bowls, we have given up on all of our cats.
Someone had the great idea of letting the dogs pick up after the cats but that
mostly resulted in the cats looking aghast and the dogs eyeing Fluffy as a meal
interloper.
That's when we hit on the idea of setting
down a large plastic serving tray underneath the bowl. What we went looking for is a
large, rectangular tray with straight sides and a minimal lip so that Fluffy's
caretakers can't step on it and tip it over. The sides need to be solid
(that is, no slots for hands where water can run through) and at least an inch
high. We call this a PlaceTray --- a word MetPet.com coined for just this
purpose!
We tried the flat plastic place mats but, no
matter how cute they were, the water and food chunks kept ending up on our floor. With the
PlaceTray, we simply lift it up off the floor, take out the food and water bowls, rinse the
tray in the sink and then dry it in the dish drainer. It comes down again in the
evening for Fluffy's next picky meal.
We found any number of them from stores as diverse as Crate and
Barrel and Wal-Mart. We wanted plastic because it won't corrode like
metal, it's lightweight and won't become a breeding ground for bacteria like
wood. They are usually seasonal and are available from Spring
through early fall.
People tend to use them for picnics and at barbecues hence the
greater availability in the Summer. They ranged in price from $2.00
(Wal-Mart) to $20.00 (Crate and Barrel). |
