Let’s talk about eating a little, okay? What a mouthwatering subject that is! Like all living beings, we need to eat, but needing to and loving to eat are two very different things, wouldn’t you agree?
On a personal note, I myself love to eat, but I am selective about what I eat. Just like you, right? And do remember please what we talked about before regarding the toxic effects many of your own preferred foods or some plants can have on our bodies. Pleasure is quickly transformed into pain when something we consume turns out to be poisonous or simply not very delicious.
Considering the more instinctive side of this issue, with our being the highly skilled hunters that we are, us housecats thoroughly enjoy an occasional tasty snack of things other than what our generous caretakers provide for us.
We may use a sneaking-up-on technique or the patiently-waiting-to-surprise strategy to go after our all-natural meals. Whichever strategy we use, it’s all the same in the end. The thrill and adrenaline rush of the pursuit and capture of the often hard-to-trap prey is what puts the fun into the hunting.
As you can now surely understand, this is why we do this even when we have sufficient supplies of store-bought food or table snacks within our own home. It makes sense, right?
One thing that seems to be completely misunderstood by the humans in relation to our hunting expeditions is our bringing the victim of our efforts into the house before consuming it. This is done with good intentions even though the looks of disgust and horror on your faces is quite confusing to us.
You see, our reason for doing so is simply to share the recently conquered meal with you. I’ve never been sure why such a kind and generous gesture on our part is responded to in a way so contrary to our good manners and social upbringing.
To make matters worse, you may have noticed that at times the prey has been weakened but not killed when we enter our house and plop it down in front of you. In this case, your reaction is surprisingly even more alarmed than when we bring it in dead and ready to eat.
To explain, this simply adds a little drama to our heroic efforts and the upcoming meal, which we mistakenly thought would be celebrated with your warm congratulations and a round of applause. Instead, I often hear something like, “Freddy, take that thing out of here, and now!”
What a disappointment. And you have had the wonderful opportunity to observe in action a true hunter who uses and depends on only his own natural abilities to carry out this respected activity of our species. Yeah, I’m talking about our sensitive eyesight, well-tuned ears, sharpened claws, and lightning speed.
In brief, I don’t get it. We do our best to give you a great performance and then share the results of our efforts, yet we are strongly rejected or even scolded for our unselfish and kindhearted efforts. Hey, show us a little appreciation, would ya please?