Yesterday I was harvesting some asparagus from my very neglected garden (luckily asparagus is a perennial that just comes back year after year). It was really way past its prime, and I was sure how it would taste, but I decided to give it a try, anyway.

I brought the asparagus inside, and began cutting it up. Simba appeared out of nowhere and began demanding his share. Simba is a rather strange cat, he’d actually train for things like carrots and asparagus and red bell pepper (the weirdest thing I’ve seen a cat eat).

I never intended to give him red bell pepper, either, but he demands that, too. He’s picky, too: it must be red bell pepper, not green bell pepper. I can’t blame him for having good taste, after all.

Gizmo is much more of a cat. He doesn’t like much people food at all. He’ll come running when he sees me give Simba a carrot, for instance, but then he just looks so disappointed.

Chester, I swear, is a walking stomach. He’s always on the lookout for food. He’s slowly getting better about begging, but it’s a slow road. He likes carrots, too, but I found out giving him a whole baby carrot wasn’t a good idea: the second one he ate he promptly got stuck in his lower jaw and it took both of us to get it out.

He will train for carrots, too. We took a long walk at a local hike and bike trail today. I sat down in a gazebo about midway, and had a couple of cookies I’d brought along. I had Chester do sit-stays and down-stays for carrots (already cut up). I’m working on getting him to obey the down command when I’m standing or sitting. He’s gotten used to us being right next to him when we give the signal, but doesn’t want to do it if I give the signal while standing. After just a couple of sessions concentrating on that he’s gotten much better.

Chester also adores banana, he liked the asparagus, too, but had trouble eating it. He liked apples, but once again had trouble eating it. I’ll have to try him out on a few more veggies. I know that it’s important to expose them to a wide variety of food while they’re still young, since they often become much pickier as they get older.

Technorati Tags: asparagus, red bell pepper, carrot, down command, veggies

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