Cookie Monster

11 months after the sad departure of woofie Critter to the Rainbow Bridge and the Eternal Playfields Beyond we are slowly wondering whether she hasn’t reincarnated. In Hrimnir.

Critter used to eat anything, everything, and all that she could shovel into her ever-hungry snout. Which is no extreme behaviour for a dog, who is after all an omnivore, and sadly Critter’s puppyhood trauma (she had been abused and neglected by her first owner) had aggravated an already existing condition into something far more obsessive. But to find the same behaviour in a tiny kitten of the species Felix Catus Sylvestris is -to say the least- a cause for wonder and awe.

Hrimnir eats. And that is just it. He eats everything that looks even remotely edible and he does so with gusto. Whenever The Mistress is happily occupied in the Kitchen of Chaos the tyke is present, mewing his tiny furry head off, tripping every simian in sight, and generally making an allmighty nuisance of his tiny furry self. Despite several feeding bowls overflowing nearby he still insists on letting us know how starved he is, and his voice carries I can tell you. But it doesn’t stop there either. The frantic jumps up and down the kitchen counters (there’s 3 of them, have fun little one) and the kitchen table are meant to imprint upon the unwary that a starving kitty is in dire need of life-saving sustenance. And his antics become more and more urgent with the presence of meat. Preferably raw. This kitty does have -after all- certain standards to uphold.

Watching little Hrimnir gnaw happily away at a piece of cartilage or bone reminds me strongly of Critter, who would with the same gusto and flair work away a cow’s leg in no time at all. Observing how the tyke struts away with his prize, a piece of chicken throat or chicken leg he snatched from the neighbours, brings back fond memories of a certain pup who would drag her cow’s leg all the way up the stairs to our Nest. And the frantic waving of tiny paws when I’m dishing out fresh food to the other cats are nothing compared to the quiet growl with which he manages to make even Zorro Le Grumpy back away for a moment. Something Critter used to do when she had something in front of her nose that she really REALLY coveted.

But the telling moment that convinced us something unusual was going on came yesterday afternoon: our houseguest Laughing Wreck was blissfully nibbling a wheat cookie and suddenly she discovered she had some serious competition for the consumption of said cookie. Because at the other end little Hrimnir was determinedly munching away what he could.

?? A cookie ?? A splendid specimen of the feline persuasion munching away a COOKIE ? And yes, that was what he did. Laughing Wreck dangled pieces and crumbs before that mewling little face and out came the paws and open wide went the mouth. A slumbering Zorro was rudely disturbed from his nap when a piece of cookie fell onto him and one kilo of ravenous kitty followed suit. Yet Hrimnir was so focused on the crumb that he blithely ignored the swiping punishing claw, he simply gobbled up the coveted piece and ascended Laughing Wreck’s sitting form on the couch once more in his search for other titbits. Needless to say the entire cookie was consumed. And not by the simian.

It shouldn’t have surprised us. The day before yesterday we caught Hrimnir red-snouted in the spaghetti. He was eating plain pasta without sauce. No, strike that, he was relishing plain pasta without sauce, devouring it with every little bit of pleasure a cat can have from eating. Oh, but don’t worry, after he dealt with the pasta we did find him in the pot with the Bolognese sauce anyway. But it is indeed a rare sight to find a kitten with a craving for carbohydrates.

That he already is an accomplished thief and a superb beggar has us in stitches of course. But his tendency to stray into the omnivorous department leaves us amazed. We know that the elder feline denizens of the House of Chaos are fond of the occasional veggie, Zorro being partial to corn and prawn crackers for instance and Loup-Garou having been found licking up a few choice bits of mashed potatoes/carrots, not to mention Bean Sidhe tucking into toasted bread with ham and cheese, but that a kitten would relish a cookie so much he was impervious to the dangers of Zorro’s ire… remarkable.

Add to this the fact that Zorro is extremely tolerant towards the tyke, and we remember how much he adored Critter, it has us wondering whether that indomitable purring canine has found her way reincarnating into a feline form.
Still… Hrimnir is Hrimnir. But I’m keeping a very tight lid on the wastebin now.

Pictures below:
oooh a crumb…

*munch* *munch*…

We can only hope there’s enough provender to satiate the tyke on the Friday Ark. All aboard !!!

Mind of Mog is hosting this Sunday’s Carnival of the Cats.  Maybe someone should suggest they stack a full pantry. It will be needed when Hrimnir pays a visit.

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