Musing on food and cooking ...

Friday, July 21, 2006

I think my cat is an alcoholic


When my cat Leo was just a wee tyke, he used to share a daily beer (Guinness whenever possible) with one of my roomies. I never thought much about it. Leo never had many brain cells to begin with, so I knew the beer couldn't make him any stupider. And he was a happy drunk, much given to snuggling.

Alas, into ever renter's life a little moving must fall, and after the move, Leo got no more beer. He actually hasn't had access to beer in more than 7 years.

Until last night.

Feeling totally lazy, I decided to have a lazy woman's dinner. I opened a can of baked beans (Bush's Homestyle - my favorite!), a bag of chips, and put some bratwurst on to boil. Now, my favorite brats are Johnsonville but I can't always find those in Boston, so I settled for some Kayem brand made with Boston-brewed Indian Pale Ale.

When I opened the package, I almost got drunk from the fumes! They were that redolent of IPA! And the fumes reawakened that demon that had just been waiting inside of Leo.

Coming out of a deep cat nap, he sauntered into the kitchen and sat at my feet, looking up at me with a little cat-smirk in his eyes. "Is that for me? Sure smells like it's for me."

No bratwurst for little kitties! Nyet! To get him to forgot about the beautiful smelling IPA brats, I opened a can of his favorite canned cat food - Royal Canine hypoallergenic venison. Normally, when I serve this, I have to lock him out of the kitchen until I get it into his dish because he tries to stick his head right in the can. Which then, of course, gets stuck, leading to cat panic and human mirth.

No luck. He looked at the dish and proceeded to jump on the stove and attempt to hook a boiling hot brat right out of the pan!

Since I am still bigger than him, I scooped him up and locked him out of the kitchen. Then, against my better judgement, I cooled one of the brats and smushed some of it up and then gave him some.

Honestly, I think he enjoyed his brat more than I enjoyed mine. Then again, maybe it was just the alcohol.

I wonder if they make brats with Guinness.....

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