Monday, February 17, 2020

A Lucky Mistake


Sometimes, a mistake turns out better than what one planned.

I had to buy some more Fancy Feast for the beasts. While not everyone eats the brand (Neville is very particular when it comes to turning his nose up at something), it is often a good resort when their usual doesn’t appeal to them. Unfortunately, while I have been able in the past to leave my purchases until there is a sale, sale prices these days appear not to dip very low. In fact, sale prices everywhere aren’t falling as low as the everyday price at Canadian Tire (for the benefit of readers of foreign origin, that is a national hardware-store chain in my country. It sells items other than hardware the way drug-stores these days sell socks and computers. I hate the twenty-first century. Anyway…)

It was to Canadian Tire that I went to buy some Fancy Feast. The variety most liked by most cats here, if you understand, is ‘ocean whitefish and tuna’, with a blue label. I bought a dozen tins. When I opened one that evening, it was not the sickly grey, fairly solid paté that my animals usually eat. It was pinkish and more liquidy. I was perturbed.

I opened a second tin and found it similarly mutated. I checked the expiry dates, and saw that they were still a year in the future (though tinned food will last long beyond that unless contaminated.) It was contamination which I next considered. Then a thought occurred to me, as they do from time to time, though not enough to prevent me from acquiring six cats. I checked the label.

Though blue, and a shade very close to ‘ocean whitefish and tuna’ paté, some of my purchases were ‘flaked tuna’. Well. Evidently having fooled the clerks at the store when they were stocking the shelves, they fooled me, as well. I could take the unopened tins back for a refund, but the store would probably be reluctant to accept the opened ones. I decided to try them on my cats.

Like Mikey in the Life cereal commercial, several of the beasts unexpectedly liked the unexpected variety. Josie, while currently favouring Merrick’s ‘chicken divan’ variety, also liked the ‘flaked tuna’. Raleigh was coaxed to eat the remnants of his regular repasts by adding a garnish of the new flavour, and Tucker, hard to please, also consumed it. (It is under the maximum percentage of carbohydrates a diabetic cat should have, too, like most Fancy Feast varieties.) And Renn, hardest to please of all, finished off nearly a tin on his own. And unlike the chunks in gravy, the cats lapped up not just the fluid portions but ate the solid bits, for the most part.

While I do not expect the cats to continue to like this new variety (I have, after all, purchased a dozen more tins of it; that should end their tangent right there), two or three tins of it already went into cats who usually eat very little soft-food, or whose consumption of it is a battle of human/feline wills. If having cats has taught me one thing, it is that while struggling for greater success, I should not disdain the smaller. The journey of a thousand miles begins, I’ve discovered, not with a single step, but with managing to tie one’s shoelaces in inadequate lighting.



19 comments:

  1. They do look similar. Glad some liked it.

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  2. My fussy guys love FF, particularly the Purely Natural entrees. I can’t afford to give it to them at every meal, but it makes a great occasional treat.

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  3. That's too funny, we had the same thing happen here with the brown Liver & Chicken pate', the Dad got the grilled by mistake. He decided to try it and we all ate it right up. Now, only one of us likes it.

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  4. You totally cracked me up! Not the cats's feeding and foods...but the journey of a thousand miles.
    That being said..I have discovered through the years that my cat~ after eating something rather steadily for a time, usually do like a change of pace. They're human too after all, and want something different. Even dear Raleigh. And Neville. Certainly the other beasts as well as they amply demonstrated.

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  5. Ahh...being the parent of finicky cats is difficult. I must have tried every variety of Fancy Feast before I found the varieties that my cats would eat. Mine like the flaked tuna and the ocean whitefish and tuna. (But it has to be the whitefish and tuna florentine variety. The plain whitefish and tuna just won't do.) I think my cats eat better than I do!

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  6. So a nice happy plus all round John..
    Hope you opened a nice bottle of wine
    to celebrate..
    Though one bottle won't go far between
    7 of you..Bless! :).

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  7. You should email fancy feast with your story. Of course you know if you stock up with this new flavour the team will reject it.

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  8. The cats obviously appreciated the lucky mistake and I hope they continue to enjoy that variety.
    The labels are too similar. I am sure manufacturers do that on purpose to get a different product out. It would be very easy to put a coloured slash or similar across the label of one of the varieties to make it easier for the buyer, but of course they don't want to do that.

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  9. I hope they enjoy the new food at least long enough to eat most of it. :-D

    If you're handy to a PetSmart, keep an eye on their sales (you can check online). I used to stock up there on FF when they had a great sale. PetValu doesn't usually have sales that are as good. Walmart carries FF too, usually is fairy "cheap" there--or was. I haven't bought any FF there in a couple of years or more.

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    1. PetSmart had better sale prices a few weeks ago, but not since. You’re right about PetValu. They had a sale a few months ago, but when I checked it out, I was told that they only had what stock was on the shelves, which was maybe four or five tins of four or five varieties. I check all the sources in town. Lately, though, the sales have been unimpressive.

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  10. Just pure luck that the cats ate it so well. I know too well that
    with canned food, if it is a new flavor it will usually be a big hit,
    for minutes! Then when you buy more, the cat simply will go hungry
    rather than eat "that disgusting flavor". Glad it turned out well for a meal or 2.

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  11. Yep! They do look alike. I too, have made this mistake. Luckily Tomtom will eat anything and everything.

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    1. I miss having a cat with an all-encompassing appetite. Raleigh comes close, but not all the time…

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  12. The novelty of the new flavour triumphed! Now, if you can only wait a week or so before introducing it again...they will have forgotten to disdain this new kind by then.

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  13. I have read that cats are exceptionally able to detect when a food is "off". (I have gone so far as to have them sniff the milk when it is getting doubtful.) So if they ate the food you presented them, it was probably not "off" in any way. But you can never be too cautious.

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  14. I've been fooled a few times too and brought home a different flavor. Saku will generally eat anything, Sasha not so much. Glad it worked out!

    P.S. I had no idea that Canadian Tire sold cat food at a discount. Must check it out as there are no sales this week and the cupboard is nearly bare - I probably have a week left.

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  15. On occasion, very very rare occasion I must stress (Ha), the wrong food ends up in our bin also. Our issue is that Rumpy gets the messy bottom if he has any of the flakes, dinners, etc. The other cats always enjoy these missteps and I simply feed the Great White in another room. Always good to know they will eat another flavor.
    I hate the billion varieties of everything also. I went to get a bottle of hot sauce the other week and gave up when the shelf for those products was 7 feet wide and 5 shelves high. Ugh

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    1. Oh, my poor friend Rumpy...

      I know what you mean about the varieties. Enough already! Chocolate bars that were just fine when we were children - and tasted like chocolate - now come in cinnamon, raspberry, creme de menthe, ammonia-dioxide, what have you. Who can like all of that?

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