A cat punch that flies out when I try to eat ice cream: My cat's "robbery disguised as an accident," which she only does to me, is too clever.

"If it's this person, they'll be a pushover for us." When your cats see you that way, you often find yourself on the receiving end of some unexpected treatment. In our house, my cats all gather together only when I’m having a snack. They’ll unleash "cat punches" to try and steal my treat, or simply apply quiet pressure.

The cleverness of a cat plotting to "mug" me for snacks

I have a sweet tooth. I quite often enjoy a snack after my meals. Whenever I do, my cats always make a huge fuss. The moment I stand up and head for the fridge, my two cats suddenly wake up and follow me.

That follow-up isn't born out of some sweet desire to "just be near you."

Cat 1: "He’s gone to get something!"

Cat 2: "Don't tell me, he’s having a snack all by himself!? I can't forgive that! Gotta check it out!" It's a surveillance-style pursuit as if they are saying exactly that.

Once I take my dessert from the fridge and sit down in my floor chair, the cats who were trailing me jump onto the table. First, they stare at me intently, with expressions that seem to say, "You're obviously going to give us some too, right...?"

If I pretend not to notice their silent begging, my youngest cat, Leon, moves to take direct action. He waits for the exact moment I raise my spoon or fork to my mouth and unleashes a cat punch.

What he’s aiming for is to accidentally get ice cream or yogurt on his paw when he strikes. He’s a tactical genius who then savors the small amount of stolen sweetness, giving off an air of, "Oh well, it just happened to get on my paw, so I guess I have to eat it."

The cat punches Leon throws are so fast that clumsy me can't dodge them. So, when I have sweets like chocolate that are harmful to cats, I play it safe: I leave the living room and eat them alone on the stairs.

At those times, my cats start a chorus of complaints. I feel like they’re saying, "We know you’re hogging all the snacks to yourself!" After I finish my own treat, I end up offering them some of their own to soothe my guilt.

The "please give me a snack" routine they don't do for my husband

Despite all this, for some reason, they only pull their "please give me a snack" routine on me. My husband has a sweet tooth too and often eats dessert after dinner, but when he heads for the fridge, the cats are as quiet as different animals...

They react to the sounds, but unlike when I take out dessert, they don't follow him and often just keep on sleeping. When my husband starts eating, they do jump onto the table and give him the same quiet "I want some" look as they do with me, but after a few minutes, they give up and start wandering around the room.

What I envy most is that they don't throw cat punches at him while he's eating. For some reason, Leon doesn't use his "it was just an accident that I got dessert on my hand" tactic on my husband.

This plan, which Leon surely thought up in all seriousness, is incredibly cute and endearing, but there is one problem for the person on the receiving end... If the flying cat punch happens to be a little closer than expected, or comes just as I’m closing my mouth, Leon’s paw ends up inside my mouth...

A few times in the past when his fluffy paw ended up in my mouth, I exclaimed, "Wow—so fluffy!" with joy, but Leon just looked annoyed.

He looked completely unamused, staring at his paw as if disappointed, thinking, "Ugh, gross..." So I apologized, saying "Sorry for eating your paw," and wiped it off with a warm, damp towel.

Even though, in the end, it was because you were throwing a cat punch in the first place. Even if I told him that, he’d probably just get angry like a child and say, "It's the servant's fault for not watching properly!" (lol)

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