Devious

My cats are most sneaky.

Shadow had a UTI a few weeks ago, and she's still eating prescription cat food, so we have to feed them separately. I feed Shadow where their dish has always been (I didn't want to disrupt her routine too much since she had to switch foods.) and I feed Tiki in the office. Tiki watches me feed Shadow, and then she trots after me to get her food. They were both happy with this arrangement until last night, when Tiki suddenly developed a keen interest in Shadow's food. I kind of hoped that this was a one-time thing, but then I discovered Shadow over at Tiki's bowl, munching Tiki's food. *sigh* So I picked up their bowls and hoped for the best.

When I fed them this morning, Tiki didn't follow me into the office to munch her food. So I was Suspicious. And sure enough, five minutes later, she sticks her paw in Shadow's dish and shovels a piece of food in her mouth - Shadow-style. (I don't know if I've ever told you about that, but
Shadow is a very messy eater. She can't just stick her head in the bowl like a normal cat. No, she scoops up a piece of food in her mouth, drops it on her paw and shoves it back in her mouth. Food gets "lost" at every step of this process. It was worse when we kept her bowl in the kitchen because she would wind up scooting it all over the place and pushing food under the congoleum. Now we keep it on the carpet so she can't move it, and we just have to vaccuum up the stray pieces of food.) So I pick Tiki up and put her in front of her food, and she sticks her little face in her bowl...and five minutes later, she's back at Shadow's dish. So this time, after I put her
in the office, I shut the door. Well, Tiki was not happy with that. She started crying and crying, but I figured I'd go in there with her once I was ready for work and then she'd calm down...so I went about my business getting ready. And when I emerged, not more than 10 min. later, the door is wide open and Tiki is sitting in the hall staring at me.

So here's the thing...Tiki has never figured out how to open doors. She just scratches on them and cries until someone opens them. Alternatively, she'll sit next to Shadow and let Shadow open the door. (Shadow just gets up on her hind legs and leans on the door until it swings open. She can only do this trick in the winter when the doors don't close too tightly. You would think that, after watching Shadow do this a few times, Tiki would catch on, but notsomuch.) Plus the office door opens inward. So then I thought Shadow busted her out! She heard Tiki crying and she opened the door. She is so defiant! She's like "Haha, Mommy! Shadow shows you!"
Only then when Matt fed them tonight, he repeated the experiment, and Tiki got out while Shadow was in the other room. So then we tried it one more time and we both watched the door.
First Tiki cried. Then we saw a little paw slide under the door and hook up and pull. (No, I'm not kidding, and, yes, it looked fake.) This happened a couple times, until it attracted Shadow's attention and she started batting at Tiki's paw. Then Tiki backed off until Shadow lost interest again and left. By this time, the door was open a few inches, but not enough for Tiki to fit through, so she continued the paw/hook routine on the side of the door until it swung open.
Sneaky Tiki! She's only playing dumb. I'll have to watch her more carefully from now on.