My cats are strange, post #97:

Thena, my older and crabbier cat, enjoys cat food and cat treats. She also likes people food, but as a rule doesn't get it because I'm trying to keep my cats from being any more spoiled than they are. It's also healthier for them, and so on.

However, I did learn when she was a kitten that she does occasionally like microwave popcorn, especially Smart Food. So once in awhile, I'll give her some of that, or a tiny bit of cheese or something. As a rule, she demands and receives wet cat food, and she's happy with that.

Venus, my little wimpy cat, has or had a very sensitive stomach. Even my slow and cautious attempts to change her food to something potentially higher-quality resulted in gastric distress (most often on my bed, as my cats love me so), so she's stayed on cat food and nothing but. Except that she too loved microwave popcorn, and a few kernels at a time didn't seem to pose any problems, so she'd sometimes get that. She prefers it with cheese powder, though; she's a gastronome.

Because of Venus' bouts of stomach failure, she's had many times when she's been on broiled chicken to help settle things down before she got re-introduced to her food ("Venus, meet your dinner. Dinner, this is Venus."). As a result, every time I'm cutting food on the counter, she thinks it's chicken, and will stand by my side and try to tap her paws on the counter or on my hip to be offered a sample. I'm a loser and will usually show her what it is I'm cutting: "See Venus? It's an apple. You don't like apples." and she goes on her merry way.

However, every now and then she's expressed an interest in something I was making beyond just a sniff-and-dismiss. For example, my cats often go insane for celery; they like to play with the little stalks and usually wind up eating them. This is insanity shared between them, and I have no problem indulging it now and again.

But my cats, like me, aren't always about the healthy eating. Venus has shown a distinct preference for crackers, cheese, tortilla chips, and most recently, rice cakes.

Yes, rice cakes; those cardboard circles whose existence is only enlivened by the addition of peanut butter, or some other flavoured glaze or powder.

Now, maybe she just has a thing for cheese powder, because the ones I was eating were seasoned with white cheddar powder, but whatever it was, she was gobbling up the pieces of rice cake the minute I set them before her nose.

My cats are weird, and I love the mental little buggers.