Someone brave enough to stick their hand in the curry... My three cats' personalities really shine through when they're after "human food."

Living with multiple cats, I've noticed that their demands for human food differ, which makes me think, "This is their individuality." At our house, when it's dinner or snack time, each of our cats begs for what they want at precisely the right moment. 

Jiji, the calico cat and the only female, is a sweet-toothed "dessert girl."

Do girls, both human and feline, just have a sweet tooth? Jiji, the only female in our house, is a dessert girl just like me, if not more so.

She shows no interest in cat cakes at all, but when I bring home a human cake, she appears silently by my side.

When I occasionally give her her favorite unsweetened yogurt, I tell her, "I'll give it to you if you wait a little longer." Maybe because of that, even with cake, she believes "I'll get some eventually!" and patiently waits by my side. I'm sorry, but I can't give you this...

ヨーグルトを盗み食いして大満足。 pic.twitter.com/cBTi9jdo4l

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) March 17, 2023

She also loves strawberries. She's not particularly fond of store-bought strawberries, but she absolutely loves the ones my mother grows. Every spring, my mother offers freshly picked strawberries to Jiji before she even offers them to me, her own daughter.

今日もいちごにゃー！♥️ pic.twitter.com/diHVzux92r

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) May 19, 2018

So, Jiji probably sees my mother as the "strawberry delivery person." When my mother comes over, Jiji observes her from a distance, then sniffs around her, wondering, "Are there no strawberries today?" Once she realizes there are no strawberries, she quickly backs away.

Jiji seems to like other fruits besides strawberries too. Once, when I was ripening a gifted melon in my room, she frequently went to it and sniffed its scent. Her actions were so cute that I asked her to "tell me when it's ripe," but of course, she never did. 

Despite Jiji's full-on feminine charm, surprisingly, she also loves natto (fermented soybeans). Since she was a kitten, whenever natto is on the table, she observes it closely, eyeing her chance.

納豆をめぐる熱い攻防戦が繰り広げられてる。 pic.twitter.com/ypKLyghcmu

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) April 7, 2023

It's a common cat trait for them to be usually slow-witted, but quick to act in such situations. If I look away for even a moment, it will be snatched away, so our household rule is to heighten our vigilance when eating natto.

However, Jiji seems to like licking the sticky strings left in the natto container more than the natto itself. So, when I give it to her, I make sure to remove any seasonings and hold the container firmly. If I don't hold the container, she panics when the container sticks to her whiskers and runs all over the room (I've experienced this when she was a kitten), so support is essential.

Jiji is indifferent to foods that cats usually show interest in, like grilled fish or meat. I really have to wonder if she's truly a cat... 

Kōtarō, the tabby cat with unpredictable food preferences.

Kōtarō's food preferences are the hardest to predict. The incident of the stolen mackerel in miso can is a legend in our household.

The incident occurred shortly after I started living with my husband. My husband, who had never lived with a cat before, had opened a can of mackerel in miso for breakfast and looked away for just a few seconds.

Then, he heard a "slurp-slurp" sound, and when he looked at the table where he had placed the mackerel in miso can, Kōtarō was happily eating it.

I was asleep at the time, so I only learned about this incident later, but my husband kept lamenting, "My mackerel in miso..." and worried, "It was only a little, but he ate something so strongly flavored, will Kōta be okay?"

The cat himself, undeterred, was aiming for the rice ball... (Of course, I stopped him).

Since that incident, whenever I serve mackerel in miso for dinner, my husband says, "I have to keep an eye on Kōtarō!" and goes into surveillance mode. With the easy snatching no longer possible, Kōtarō seems somewhat discontent.

Kōtarō also loves chicken dishes. The chicken breast for bang bang chicken is definitely snatched, so it's our house rule to offer it to him first.

He likes many other things, and the most heart-stopping moment was when he stuck his paw in curry. It's definitely not good for him, so I panicked more, thinking, "I have to wipe his paw before he licks it...!"

He always aimed for strongly flavored foods like that, so I thought that was just his type, but then a shocking truth was revealed in his third year with us. He started aiming for "somen" (thin wheat noodles), which is arguably a 대표 of light-flavored dishes.

そうめん泥棒が出る季節になったので、盗まれる前にそうめんをあげました。 pic.twitter.com/dGbim8uNMM

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) May 7, 2020

Apparently, to Kōtarō's eyes, somen noodles look like strings moving in the water. When I manage to avoid the quick swats he delivers when I scoop up noodles with chopsticks, or him suddenly sticking his paw into the water – a summer-only event – I deeply feel, "Ah, summer has come again this year."

Leon, the youngest cat, is crazy about sweets and ice cream.

Leo shows absolutely no interest in human food on the table. Even if chicken breast is served, he acts oblivious, as if thinking, "This isn't mine." For someone accustomed to Kōtarō's snatching, his indifference is so profound that it's truly touching, like he's a true gentleman.

However, perhaps as a reaction to that, he is crazy about sweets and ice cream. After dinner, when I'm enjoying my blissful dessert time, he positions himself in front of me and starts exerting silent pressure.

When Leon starts applying invisible pressure, Kōtarō somehow joins in. The two of them, perhaps thinking, "Maybe we'll get something...?", threaten me with their stares.

Even if I try to soothe them by saying, "You can't eat this," or "We'll have your special treats later," they don't listen. When our cats get serious, no one can stop them...

However, for some reason, Leon never begs when my husband is eating sweets. His cleverness in distinguishing people to beg from is almost human-like, isn't it? Could it be that he thinks of me as someone who might just give in if he begs? 

Of course, when my beloved cats beg, I carefully choose what to give them, considering their health. But when I see their dejected faces when I can't give them something, my heart always aches, wishing, "If only we could eat the same things..."

Sharing meals deepens bonds even between humans, so I hope that in the future, more common meals and snacks that are delicious and safe for both cats and humans will emerge.

With that wish, today, too, I soothe the cats' gazes that say, "You're eating something delicious all by yourself, that's unfair."