Food Play + Jokey Animals + Esther Chilton’s X-Naughty Tortie

“Don’t play with your food!” When’s the last time you heard that? My passion is writing (click here for more about my books), so I’m especially lucky that my husband’s passion is cooking. His food-play fills our home with delicious aromas and fills our tummies with healthy dishes. (Click here and click here for some of his many food shares. Type “recipes” into the search bar for more.) On weekends, his beautiful brunches often include mushrooms. Myself a pescatarian animal lover, his food art can border on being too adorably realistic to eat. This critter’s mixed some melted cheese into mouthfuls of leafy greens…

Jokes and general play are the rainbows. Joy and friendship are the resulting pots of gold. Even many of our fellow beings can’t resist doing it. Our sorely missed tabby cat often snagged open Khashayar’s rattan bureau drawers, flung clothes onto the floor, then dashed out of our bedroom in delight! For sure, squirrels can’t get enough of hee-hee-taunting our dog, who saves her laughs for when we play hide-and-seek. Do dome-shaped vegetarian tortoises and sleek omnivore turtles play? Since I dunno — here’s the next best thing…

Today’s guest blog post, a UK blogger/writer/editor/tutor/cat-fancier Esther Chilton knows her tortoiseshell cat is up to something….

My Very Naughty Tortie by Esther Chilton

I’d heard of the saying ‘Naughty tortie’ and, to be honest, I wasn’t sure there was actually anything in it. True, I hadn’t ever had a tortoiseshell before, but I’d had cats my entire life and they’d all had very different personalities, from cuddly, to standoffish, to mischievous.  So, when I adopted Lexi, a tortoiseshell kitten, from a cat shelter ten years ago, I was excited and looked forward to welcoming her home. I wasn’t worried by the tag attached to her markings. But little did I know I’d adopted a kitten with ‘tortitude’ – in buckets. I already had a couple of other cats which meant I needed to keep Lexi away from them to begin with and introduce them steadily. I thought it would be a good idea to set Lexi up in my loft conversion, where I slept. I could then make sure she was okay.   As I settled down to bed that night, Lexi scrambled up and snuggled up with me. Oh, how sweet, I thought. By the next morning, bleary-eyed through lack of sleep, I was beginning to think very differently. I know kittens like to play, and I made sure she had plenty of toys and spent time with her, but Lexi came alive at night. She thought it great fun to sneak under the covers and pounce on my legs, arms, toes – any part of me she could. And, if she wasn’t attacking me with her needle-sharp claws, she was licking me. Not the best way to be woken up!  I hoped this was a phase – one that wouldn’t last long. It wasn’t, so I ended up leaving her in the loft overnight and sleeping downstairs.  I like a cat with character and, as the months went on, it was soon apparent Lexi was a larger-than-life character. She doesn’t like being shut out of any rooms in the house. She clearly thinks she has a right to go where she pleases. If a door is shut, she’ll scrape away at the door (peeling the paintwork off) and/or tug at the carpet (pulling up tufts or a corner of the carpet itself), until she is let in. If I intervene if I don’t want her in a particular room, and try to distract her, she’ll turn to me and give me a right mouthful, just like a petulant teenager, then return to her task.  Her favourite thing in the whole world is dry cat biscuits. She has one pouch of wet food in the morning and one in the early evening, then biscuits before bed. Though Lexi’s bedtime is a little different to mine. She thinks she should be given biscuits at 7pm and lets me know by pulling at the cupboard door where they are kept. If I don’t give in, she’ll keep on at the door, or me, making it very clear she’s starving and needs her biscuits.  When I lived near my mum, if I went on holiday, she would look after the cats instead of them going into a cattery. One particular time when I was away, I received a frantic call from her to say she thought the house had been broken into. My heart was in my mouth. I asked Mum what had been taken.  “Well, I can’t see that anything has gone,” she said. “But all the drawers in your chest of drawers upstairs have been pulled open and the clothes are all over the floor.”   “It’s alright, Mum, it’s just Lexi,” I said. I’d forgotten to warn her that Lexi thinks it’s terrific fun to pull drawers open and yank all the clothes out. Although she’s cheeky, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I adore my feisty tortie and she really is the most caring girl. She always knows when I’m not feeling good, or if I’m upset, and she’ll cuddle up to me, placing her paw on my arm as if to say, “It’s going to be okay.” And, at least life is never dull with Lexi around!

Does your pet play tricks on you?