Many of you have asked me to get a video of Em feeding Murray. You see, usually Em feeds Murray on the fly, without my noticing. Both parties make out under this arrangement: Em gets to appear as though he’s eaten everything on his plate, and Murray gets fatter and fatter and fatter. Last week, I decided to sit there with the video camera and let them do their thing. This is what ensued:
My son will either end up with an immune system like that of an android, (which is to say impenetrable where germs are concerned) or he’ll be allergic to everything and air within the year.
And now for the caveats!
1). When you see me nudge the highchair closer to the piece of waffle, it wasn’t so that Em could then eat it. I assumed he would feed it to Murray again. I feel I must explain myself because I get the feeling I may get nasty email for this one.
2). We have lost almost all control of our animals. I have no clue how to keep them off the kitchen table, counters, shelves. We’re hoping that once we finally settle down, we’ll be able to shut them out of our eating quarters entirely. In the meantime, if you happen to know of an experienced cat whisperer, let me know.
3). I know I state otherwise, but I actually don’t think this is at all gross. But this is coming from someone who was given milk straight from a cow teat when she was a little girl by none other than her father. I was raised in dirt, around animals, fish and chum, poop and even mildew. Nothing earthen was off limits for my brothers and me. That said, I did edit the part out at the end of the video where I mutter, “I’m going to go to jail for this, aren’t I?”
The Internet makes me nervous, I suppose, makes me second guess myself.
That is the cutest thing ever. I scared my own cats because I was laughing so hard at their adorable little relationship. Emory is going to grow up to be a hearty little animal lover, which is lovely and wonderful (sorry, I am feeling extremely sentimental today – I think it is the election…).
If you get the cat whisper’s number, please, please, please pass it on. I was making a (red, white and blue) cake for the election party I am hosting tonight and I am sure it is going to be both nasty (because I was busy trying to get cats off the kitchen counter so I probably messed up some measurements) and covered in fur (because I am sure the cats stuck their heads in the batter/frosting when I had my back turned). Now I am just trying to prevent them from hopping up on the counter and devouring any of it (they did this with a vegetarian casserole I made a few weeks ago).
Don’t second guess yourself! You are doing a great job, from the little I can see over the internet. You love your kid, he looks healthy and strong, you read to him, you research his toys and his crib mattress and the BpA thing and all that jazz. You are a caring, committed, and smart mom, and your kid is fabulous, and so is your cat. Be Proud! You make good choices!
I firmly believe in germ sharing. It leads to a strong immune system. I’m not saying, now, that I would share a waffle with Murray. ;)
I think it’s awesome. Kids who have animals have fewer allergies and get sick less.
Oh, he’s cute. Don’t you love that smacking sound they make when they eat? If anybody else did that, I’d well, smack them! But oh, he is a cute cute kid (and cat)!
Don’t doubt yourself—you’re (we’re, collectively) doing great!
Your son is just one of the cutest children I have ever seen! Tied with my own son, of course. :)
River does the same thing, but with my mother’s dog. So much more ick than a cat!
I miss my Tabby Cat! I would sit on the couch to eat, she would sit on the arm of the couch and eyeball my plate until she decided what she wanted off of it. Then she would look the other way and innocently reach over with her paw to knock the foot off of the plate. The look on her face when she turned back around and saw the food on my lap was like, “Oh! For me?” It was pretty gross having a cat’s paw in your plate, but really, you can’t deny them can you?
I heard that if you pile a bunch of baking sheets, muffin pans, etc. upside down on the table or cabinets and the cat jumps up there, they will be startled by the noise and stuff sliding around that it will make them not want to jump up there any more.
Awesome. I love this. When I was a child I used to feed my dog Sam peanut butter from the jar and then use the same spoon to scoop some out for myself. And then I’d put it back in the fridge and everyone in the family would eat it.
siobhan for the win!
Emory looks so happy feeding Murray. They look like great little buddies. I think it is totally adorable and completely natural.
This made me smile like the smilin’ nutball. I love this video. And our cats are everywhere too. Not quite as awesome as Murray though. No “sharing”, our kitties aren’t as generous. Oh dear this is so sweet.
Nothing wrong with sharing a little food with the animals. :) Our cats are everywhere as well…people that come over to our house see it and are bothered by it, but I’ve stopped caring…my family is still alive and not suffering from some cat-born illness. All you can do is clean/disinfect the tables and counter tops regularly.
When I was little I would buy a bag of candy, join my dog in her doghouse and share peices of candy with her. I’m fine. I think anyway! Also black labs love swedish berries candy. Who knew?
What strikes me is that Murray is not so obese that he appears (at least from what I can see) to have much trouble jumping up onto countertops and tables and shelves. I never have to worry about Tornado Kitty getting onto anything more than a couple feet high, which may be convenient for me, but I know it doesn’t bode well for her health.
don’t worry about the internet. my mom raised me without it and i hope i turned out okay ;)
as for keeping them off the countertops, etc, i SWEAR by double stick tape. tinfoil is okay for it, but sheets of something sticky will teach them the right way. isobel is NEVER allowed on the counters, and at first i used a squirt gun, then sticky tape and foil to reinforce.
also – siobhan – HILARIOUS.
Hah! This video is awesome. It actually makes me feel better. The first thing I did when I brought Henry home from the hospital was freak out about having two cats and a newborn. I’m slowly realizing that the cats are not going to be a cause of any harm to my kid.
So awesome. My mom tells stories of finding me and the dog enjoying the same bowl of kibble. I turned out OK – not a single allergy to boot. A few shared-with-the-kitty waffles aren’t going to hurt.
As for keeping the cats off the counters/table spaces, I’m all ears if anyone has good suggestions. I’ve tried the squirt bottle and my cat actually seems to like it. I’m at a loss.
hey this reminds me. help me convince my mom next time you see us to let me adopt two kitties from the shelter!
http://jezebel.com/5079385/i-can-haz-twitter-feed
did you see this? it makes me think of last week’s TWM (but comments are closed on that)