Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Posted by Animals at 5:38 PM Friday, August 28, 2009

Scratchings-and-Sniffings

The Time Factor: How Do They Know It's Dinnertime?

Posted: 27 Aug 2009 09:33 AM PDT

Pandora The easy answer to how your dog or cat knows it's dinnertime is: training and routine. Most of us have a routine - we get up, eat breakfast, even if it's just coffee, go off to work or whatever, then eat lunch, off again, and at 5 or 6, we eat dinner.

Our pets get used to that routine and know that dinnertime is...5 or 6 (or 7, whatever). My problem with this is that my cat thinks dinnertime is 3:00 in the afternoon. She has never been fed at 3:00 in the afternoon. Dinnertime at our house is between 5-6. I try to feed her at 5, if I'm home. If I'm out at a meeting, I feed her when I get home.

This sudden desire to eat at 3:00 (yesterday she started pacing and wailing around 1:30!), started just a year or so ago. Wabby is 16, going on 17, and I wonder if this is an "old-age" issue. I will have to check with Dr. Larry.

Meantime, I'm left trying to calm her down and -- yes, I know it's crazy -- showing her the clock. "It's not time to eat, Wabby," I coo into her ear. "Look, it's only 2:00."

She gives the clock a very long stare, then looks up at me as if to say, "My tummy doesn't tell time. It's hungry. Why can't you feed me now?"

The hunger thing isn't a problem, really. I do manage to distract her until it's time - but this middle-of-the-night wailing is getting out of hand. She can't be hungry - she has a full bowl of dry food (now that Carmie isn't here to eat it!). I think it's just old-age, and she's wandering around the house lost. Which is pretty sad - in the sense that it means she's declining. Not in health - her recent check-up showed she's in great health for her age, but mentally, how do we know how she is? PandoraDisapproves-face150x181

I love my Wabby. Her little habits that interrupt my sleep, or sometimes my work (I work at home) are endearing. At least so far. As we prepare to move to CO, we have boxes all over, and we're painting walls, and rearranging furniture and even changing rooms into something different, so it's understandable that she would be confused. This picture of her is a pretty standard view - that's how she looks all the time. Even when she's happy!

I'm just wondering how much she "gets" (that something big is up) and how much is just, "What do my humans think they are doing messing around with my house?" It's probably more the latter - after all, she does deign to allow us IN her house.

I can't wait to see what she does when we get her to the new house!

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