Freak of nature

We adopted Schrodie when she was about eight months old. She’d had a hard life and was certainly not your typical cat, but we didn’t want a “typical” cat. I remember when we first brought her home she went into hiding so I bought some canned tuna to try and coax her out… or at least to get her to eat at night while we were sleeping. But she turned her nose up at it.

After she came out of hiding, she never really got offered fish or meat again. Just cat food. After all, she is a cat. And with Paul being a vegetarian, there was never any meat or fish in the house anyhow. Then, in the first few months after Paul died, I didn’t cook; I ate TV dinners and overly-processed junk food. It was no surprise that the cat wasn’t interested.

Fast forward to December, and I finally started cooking again – and cooking fish and meat, because I’m not a vegetarian. The first meal I cooked was a nice steak with sautéed prawns. Schrodie sniffed around a bit, so I tried to offer her a bit of steak. She turned her nose up at it. So I thought maybe she was after the prawns. Nope, not interested in that either. By the end of the meal, I decided that she just wasn’t accustomed to being in a house where such wonderful foods were available – and was maybe nervous about the repercussions of eating her master’s servant’s food.

Anyhow, it’s been about two months since I started cooking again and she’s yet to give any real notice to my dinners; a sniff here and there, but never an attempt to help herself to the culinary delights. Steak? Prawns? Lasagna? No. Fresh tuna? Cheese? Eggs? Not on your life. Chicken? Salmon? Ice cream? Nope.

So, here I am with a belly full of clam linguini and fresh salmon, and the cat won’t so much as lick my plate. I’m left wondering if maybe all of those people who rave about what a good cook I am are just being polite and the cat wants nothing to do with my culinary disasters, or if the cat is just a freak of nature that doesn’t enjoy fish and meat.

I’m going to vote for freak of nature, because it’s easier on my ego.