Smells in the Pantry

Saturday is grocery shopping day.  I had a coupon to get Meow Mix food cups http://meowmix.com/products/. I buy these from time to time, but usually just one or two. I bought several today because of the coupon.  There were two varieties available at the store that I thought my cats would like and could handle: tuna and shrimp or beef and chicken. In the past, I have seen other varieties.  I have long learned that any variety with salmon is too rich for Sake.  The other cats may or may not eat it. Sake will eat it, she likes salmon, but then she vomits. Usually my cats do not care for a beef variety, but they will eat a beef combination with chicken variety.

As is usual, I returned home from the store and placed the various items I purchased in the "pantry," a little closet in my kitchen I use for food storage.

Sometime in the afternoon, Take sat at the edge of the pantry door, with her nose in the closet. She looked like she was in time out.  But she was definitely checking out something. I could not tell what was attracting her senses to entice her to sit there.  After a while, she moved on.

A couple of hours later, Sake sat at the same pantry door, and was sniffing.  This was too strange not to be coincidental. So, I watched her closely.  She was sniffing at the Meow Mix cup of tuna and shrimp.

I put this out for Sake, and she ate minimally at it. But it attracted Taki, who was very polite and watched Sake eat. It also attracted Haiku, who just sat at the feeding area I have for the cats.  After Sake finished, I split the rest of the food in two dishes, and both Haiku and Taki ate the shrimp and tuna mixture. 

Although Sake did not eat much, I am thrilled at finding another food that she will eat, even if sparingly.

I am just amazed that the cats could smell the food through the packaging.  I wonder if the people at Meow Mix have planned this.  But of course they did.