I met the mooch of all mooches this Saturday. My Wife and I had gone to a work-related picnic (which is sort of like a work-related injury, minus the pain, but with potato salad) and encountered a cat. This was, by far, the friendliest, most gregarious, affectionate and, above all, hungriest cat I’ve seen in a very long time.
It would rub up against your chair. It would rub up against the table legs. It would rub up against your ankles. It would look at you with big, soulful eyes that practically begged you to scratch it behind the ears. If you did, it would rub up against your hand and purr lovingly. And if you tried to eat while it was watching, it would put its paws up on your leg and look mournfully, longingly at your fork as it passed far overhead.
We’d heard from this co-worker that she’d been given a cat by her daughter (or niece? I forget which…) and that it was affectionate to the point of causing massive annoyance. What we didn’t know was that this was not that cat. This was a neighbor’s cat. And it behaved as if it hadn’t eaten in weeks.
When Matt C sat down to enjoy his plate of picnic goodies, the cat nosed its way up into his lap and made a valiant attempt to wedge itself into a position where it could get at his plate. It was evicted fairly quickly, but remained in the area, hovering around for anything it could hoover up.
I admit that I was the one who started the avalanche. I gave the poor starving kitty a little bite-full of the macaroni and cheese that someone had brought. This vanished almost instantly, followed by another bite. Then a bean from my Wife’s Umpteen Bean Salad of Doom, which the cat devoured despite the vinegar dressing. Subsequent beans were ignored, however, in favor of some bits of cheese that Matt C. put down for it.
That cat ate like a prince. A starving, felinoid prince, but a prince. The final tally was shocking: Several bites of hamburger, some samples of Bratwurst, lots of cheese, one pickled bean, two bites of mac & cheese, and the licked-up remnant of a plate of Seven Layer Dip, including the guacamole. All of this accompanied by appreciative purrs and much happy head-butting and ankle rubs.
And then the neighbors came home.
The cat spotted their car from across the yard and through a copse of trees. That or it heard the creak of their back door. Either way, it took off like a shot. All the affection we gave it was forgotten. Its stomach was full, its people were back, so off it went…