Merlin and the Shrimp Creole

Disclaimer: No offense to Gimli but most of these posts will be about Merlin since he is the food obsessed, kitchen hanging out cat.

Both of my cats are stalkers. Gimli enjoys stalking cat toys, boxes, and any family member that is in sight- especially Merlin. Merlin, on the other hand, is more of a soup stalker. It is far from uncommon to sit down to your lunch and quickly have a large white paddy paw reaching for your bowl of chicken noodle. Tonight he has been stalking the Shrimp Creole.

I was planning on making shrimp creole for dinner last week but a lack of canned tomatoes vetoed that idea. It ended up being for the best since Adam had a 6:30pm meeting I'd forgotten about and wasn't going to be home for dinner. A minor bout of the flu over the weekend prevented us from feeling like cooking though I did get to the grocery store before feeling rotten. So shrimp creole got bumped to tonight's menu.

The prep work for shrimp creole mostly involves chopping vegetables- not something cats are overly interested in. However, it does also involve prepping shrimp. I just simply use pre-cooked frozen shrimp because it is a lot more convenient. Prep just involves thawing the shrimp and them removing the tails (if I feel like it). Of course, the smell of thawing shrimp can draw kitties to the kitchen. Now, I don't really know if shrimp thawing gives off an odor discernable to felines (I certainly don't smell anything) or if it is just the act of my doing things in the kitchen that draws a Mermer.

Luckily Merlin isn't a food snatcher. He'll beg at your side for what is on your plate but he'll leave the food left unwatched on the counter alone. So the shrimp in the sink has been ignored. However, shortly after I added the chicken broth and wine to the pot of veggies I had a Merlin watching closely. Merlin loves to sit on top of the refrigerator. It is one of his "petting spots"- places he has trained us to lather attention on him when he goes to. It also makes a great spot for eyeing the kitchen.

The only way to get to the top of the fridge is by jumping on the the spot of counter between the fridge and the stove. This takes some extreme feline dexterity, especially when there is a hot pot on the stove, but Merlin is an expert. So tonight he jumped to his spot, nicely depositing a few white flying hairs into the creole. Luckily I saw them before I stirred the pot. One was actually stuck on the spoon.

He then watched me work for awhile until he somehow managed to open the freezer door. I don't think this was on purpose but since the freezer is where we keep the kibble one never knows. Gimli happened to be nearby when the freezer was opened and subsequently thought it should be snack time. When Gimli decides he wants to be fed it is best to comply, unless you want to be continually harassed, bit, and bounced at with claws. So I handed out a small snack.

Of course, in order to eat the snack Merlin had to get off the fridge. This is more difficult when something is on the stove but he managed it. Though, being Merlin he paused for awhile by the simmering creole, torn between tasting that and eating his perennial favorite, kibble.

Kibble won out, of course, but I fully expect him to return to the scene of his stalking once the creole is ready to eat and in bowls.

And yeah, there's a good chance he'll get a bit of shrimp if he shows up and looks cute enough (and when does a cat NOT look cute enough?)