Lately El Sid has dismissed us both as too snore-y and/or fidgetty in our sleep. He prefers his night’s sleep on the pillow pile in the living room. Until it’s time to barrel across the headboard at 5 AM and demand breakfast, that is. 
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The good news is that my cat’s special X-Men power is turning into a pillow, the bad news is that he thinks breakfast is 5:30am on the dot.
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I feed my cat at night to avoid those early morning 'Feed me!'s
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We feed our cats at 7am and 7pm most days and they know exactly when that is somehow.
There’s always a problem when we change the clocks for a week or so but then they are back on track.
The younger one will wait outside the bedroom in the morning to hear the second one of us moves or if the alarm clock goes off. From then on she’s meowing and pawing the door until breakfast is served!
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Same - 5:30 when I wake up and like 4:30 when I get home. I’ve tried feeding them before bed and to them that means its now 3 square meals a day
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One of our cats now recognizes the sound of preparing ice cream. The freezer door opening, pulling off the lid, a spoon clinking on the counter. He will hear this from 3-4 rooms away and be there before the freezer door closes.
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My parents’ cat considers any sound from the kitchen to indicate that food is being prepared for him.
He won’t eat ice cream because it’s too cold. He loves whipped cream and yogurt, though. If you finish a cup of yogurt he will stick his face in and lick the inside clean.
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Same here, these guys will happily clean a yogurt cup. But one in particular is bonkers for ice cream, and he discerns among other sounds. Pots and pans clanging? Baking sheets? Not interested. He’s zoned in precisely on only those sounds that say ice cream is on the way. 
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Ought to get some Drumsticks and Klondike Bars just to mess with him.
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No chocolate!
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OK, Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake Bars, then. And Push-Ups.
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Automatic feeders are the way to go, unless you have a lot of cats. They will expect the feeder to feed them and not yell at you. Plus you can just leave the feeder clocks unchanged for daylight savings.
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“Whiskas. It’s the right thing to do, and a tasty way to do it.”
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Oh you’d think automatic feeders were the answer but that’s because you didn’t know that my cat Brutus has an engineering degree.
He would show up to the feeder 5 minutes early and wait for the thing to rotate, shove his paw to stop it, and then rotate it backwards and eat every dish.
Then the asshat got a urinary infection and my vet yelled at me for giving them dry catfood
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I was rewatching an old My Cat From Hell the other night and, contrary to what you’d expect, it turned out that free-feeding was making a trio of kitties more combative, not less. Though an automatic feeder would be a good backup if I had to be away for a day or had mobility issues, etc.
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Both of my dorks get a can a day, split in half for ‘breakfast’ and ‘dinner’. Sometimes ill break down because they’re “just so starved” and throw in a late night snack, but only because they’ve trained me.
Brutus lived outside in the woods and on his own for like four years, and he’s developed a hoarding/overeating complex because of it. So if I leave food for him 24/7, then he will try to eat it all. He’s between 10-12 years old now so I’ve had lots of experience with him.
The other one Ickis doesn’t have an appetite and just waits for Brutus to tell him, so there’s a clear personality difference
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Also I want to throw in a “get well soon”, or “I hope you’re feeling okay”. Possibly the cats could pull you around in a little chariot on off days?
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Oh, thanks. But I’m not having any major problems right now unless the usual seasonal allergies count. And MR_Potroast is here to keep El Sid in line (and fed) when I’m not available.
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He’s also got a gnarly, messed up face which gives him an absolutely amazing range of facial-mugging
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He’s so pretty!!
I never believed you could free-feed a dog until I got my first dog as an adult. I’d put down a bowl and he’d eat like half of it, and come back later.
The dog I grew up with, we once left with a dog sitter and apparently he thought you just fed the dog until they stopped asking for more food. So he fed her like five bowls of food in a row until she threw up. She did not have a “stop eating” setting.
And now, back to cats
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