We have two cats. One is a fur covered blob of a cat. Autumn's life began as a truck cat. She was the companion to an over-the-road-trucker friend (Lobster) of Wyfster (my beloved). Then, Lobster was dating someone whose daughter was allergic to cats, so he had to get rid of Autumn.
Thus, we adopted her. It took her a couple of days to acclimate, but once she did she was just fine.
Lobster kept a large bin in the truck for her litterbox, and food and water dishes that I guess were rarely empty. Autumn had to adjust to litterbox, food, and water dishes that were shared with another cat (Klanci D. Kitty-cat, rest her fluffy soul). This worked out pretty well, and fights between the fuzzy girls were rare. Except Autumn ate more than Klanci.
Well, as you could guess, Klanci died (from old age, not from anything Autumn did), and we had Autumn. She got used to eating as much as she wanted, any time.
Well, Lobster had another cat that he had to get rid of, this one living at the house he kept in the boonies, so Delilah joined our family. Delilah is a long-haired calico, and when she doesn't have the rips, is somewhat affectionate. When we first got her, she was not a pleasant kitty.
She had fleas, and was in a brand new environment. Within two days at her new home, Delilah was subjected to a flea bath at my hands, and she wanted nothing to do with me for days. But, she ate, and Autumn didn't take to kindly to the interloper eating her food.
Fast-forward a bit, and we have two cats who are mostly civil to one another. There are occasional pouncing incidents, and pawing at one another (both are front-declawed), but for the most part, the two cats tolerate one another.
We use a storage tote as a litterbox (the standard litterbox we had just wasn't cutting it), and put food and water down for the cats. They take turns at the food dish, and there have not been fights at the food bowl, so things are okay there.
But Autumn has decided to take to "grazing". She steps into the kitchen to take about two mouthfuls of food about 7-8 times a day, not counting when she is in there actually eating (spending more than 10 seconds at the food bowl).
We have a couple of problems though. If the food bowl is empty, Autumn will look at us with a gaze that screams "feed me! I'll starve!". We put food down, and try to keep some amount of food in the bowl at all times. But when we sleep, it's tough to do that, and if we forget to check the food before bed, it could be totally empty by morning, which leads to the first problem.
If the dish is empty, we put food in. And Autumn eats. Actually, she does the kitty equivalent of binging. And, following a good binge, usually comes a purge. Autumn picks the white dining room rug upon which to purge, which usually leads to one of my kids announcing loudly, "Mommy! Daddy! Autumn puked again!".
All I can say is thank goodness we have a steam cleaner.
The other problem has to do with Delilah. As a long haired cat, she sheds (Autumn does to, but Delilah makes it known). She likes to hold herself up, in a proud kitty pose, with all her fluff clean and groomed.
One of the ways she keeps herself groomed is the other problem.
She likes to plop on the living room carpet, which is darkly colored, and roll around, back and forth, working any loose fur out of her coat. On any given day, the carpet has little tufts of shed calico fur that stand out in sharp contrast to the carpet's dark color. We normally vacuum the carpet and try to keep it clean, but sometimes its easier to just let it go for a day or so, because no matter what else happens, a freshly vacuumed carpet will, within 2 hours have new tufts of fur.
I almost wish I could train the cats to work together.
Delilah could shed all over the dining room rug, making a "shield" of her fur, so that when Autumn throws up, it's on the fur. That way we could just collect Autumn's leavings on top of some shed fur, keeping the living room carpet looking nice and clean, the white dining room rug looking nice and clean, but keep the puke from actually REACHING the dining room rug.
I know it sounds gross, but when you live with two fuzzy bundles of joy who lick their own butts clean, your thoughts on such things tend to change.
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