Cat Food
June 16, 2008
Back to bananapeel town.
During the two short weeks Deborah and I were away on our honeymoon, the price of Deborah's preferred brand of cat food went up fifty cents per can at our corner deli, from 1.49 to 1.99. (When Deborah and her cats first moved in with me, the price was 1.29.) "I could probably feed the cats steaks for less money," Deborah said when she noticed the price increase.
On Saturday, after an early brunch, Deborah stopped into a butcher shop with an idea.
"Hot enough for ya?" the butcher said.
"I have what might be a strange request," said Deborah. "Do you guys have rabbit?"
"Yup."
"Can you grind me up a whole rabbit? Just put the whole thing in a grinder for me?"
I'm sure a Brooklyn butcher gets stranger requests than that, and he barely raised an eyebrow. Deborah explained anyway: "It's for my cats."
The guy laughed and told her he could do it, but that the rabbits were frozen and she'd have to come back in the afternoon.
Later, when we passed a dead bird on the sidewalk, I suggested we bring it home for the cats, but to my surprise, Deborah didn't like the idea.
"Aww, no. Poor thing," she said.
"I don't know, looks pretty delicious."
"Eww. No. Aww." She tugged at my elbow and pulled me away.
"I didn't think you were gonna make it," said the butcher when Deborah returned to the butcher shop.
He took the thawed rabbit and began expertly cutting the meat off the bones, preparing to grind it.
"No," Deborah said. "I want the whole thing. Bones and all. Can you do that?"
"No. My grinder won't grind bones."
"Not even little rabbit bones?"
"No, sorry."
"Okay, just grind the meat. But I still want the bones."
For eight dollars, Deborah walked out of there with a sack full of ground critters and a handful of bones.
We'll see how long this kick lasts. A quick search on the internet turns up a lot of conflicting advice regarding cat food, and Deborah has been spending every morning researching the various alternatives, but in the meantime…
