Bad Houseguest

I went on a trip to NYC this past weekend and I took Mickey (My Cat) to Lou’s (My Brother) house on Wednesday night. Apparently, he doesn’t get high marks as a houseguest. The things that I find cute and adorable don’t quite translate to others.

He doesn’t appear to be a dainty eater. My brother kept telling me that it appeared that Mickey wasn’t eating much food, his food bowl was staying at the same level every day. On Saturday Lou walked into the kitchen to discover Mickey eating out of the dogs bowl. Who knew that he would prefer the dog food? Lou went on to say that he would eat a piece of food partially and a couple small pieces would fall out of his mouth and onto the floor. Instead of eating those pieces he would leave them there and get a new piece. All weekend Lou kept blaming the messy floor on the dog…but it wasn’t so. In addition to eating the food he also took ownership of the food bowl and water dish. While Lou was in the room the dog came by for a snack and Mickey wouldn’t let him past. He hissed, growled and smacked the dog in the face with his paw. Apparently, he wanted to dominate the household.

The next adorable thing he does is he likes to drink out of human glasses. As I am used to this behavior I dry to prevent him from doing this by drinking out of lidded water bottles. Lou’s family isn’t so well trained. Any glass that was left alone for longer than a few minutes was susceptible to attack. He would come up and stick his paw in the cup and lick the contents. If the beverage wasn’t to his liking he would knock over the cup and spill the contents. This is what he does for sport. I guess while he was visiting there were a multitude of spilled beverages.

Even though Mickey is fed well…he likes an occasional treat out of the garbage can. Again, since I am used to this behavior I never put food in the garbage can in the kitchen. I take it directly to the garbage can in the garage. Lou’s family is not so trained. Every morning Lou would get up and have to clean up the garbage mess in the kitchen. You would think that he would learn his lesson (Lou…not Mickey).

Mickey’s nickname is now Garfield at Lou’s house and he doesn’t appear to be welcome any time soon. Are there any volunteers for Mickey duty for my next trip? He really is cute!