Life's Outtakes: Trading with Marshmallow

We have a cat named Marshmallow. I call her that because she is a light brown Siamese and looks like a lightly toasted marshmallow. Someone dropped her off at our house, and she was obviously used to being an indoor cat. But since my wife, Donna, is allergic to cats, that didn’t work for us.

Marshmallow stayed anyway and learned to live in the outdoor house we made for the cats. It is quite comfortable and protected from the weather, and she became used to it. But one thing she continued to struggle with was hunting.

We do feed our cats, especially in the winter, but mice are abundant in the summer. This winter, we lost dozens of young trees to mice and voles chewing off the bark beneath snow level, and when spring came, the cats mostly quit coming to ask for food. Marshmallow was the exception. Being a house cat, she apparently had learned little about hunting.

In the summer, we often put out dog food instead of cat food. The cats will only eat it if they are hungry, which they seldom are, so we rarely have to put out much. Marshmallow would reluctantly eat it, and she had plenty, but she preferred cat food.

Gradually, Marshmallow learned to hunt with the other cats. But because of her previous life, food was still her favorite diet. One day, she brought a mouse to our door.

In the past, I have seen cats do that as a gift, but this seemed to be different. Donna was the one who opened the door at Marshmallow’s scratching, and Donna had had far worse experiences with gifts from feline friends than I had.

When Donna was young, they bought a house and inherited the cat named Miko that lived there. Miko was a diligent mouser, but the problem was that he liked to bring mice gifts to his humans. The even bigger problem was that he always brought them alive. He must have thought it was a better present that way. More than once, Miko brought his gift and scratched on the door. When the door was opened, he dropped the mouse. To get away from the cat, the mouse would dash inside. A furious chase and much chaos always ensued.

So, when Donna saw the mouse in Marshmallow’s mouth, she slammed the door. But when Marshmallow dropped it, Donna could see the mouse wasn’t moving, so she opened the door to praise the cat. Marshmallow went to her bowl and looked expectantly at Donna. She seemed to have brought the mouse, hoping to trade it for some cat food.

Donna considered that if she gave Marshmallow cat food as a reward for bringing a mouse, there might be no end to the number of mice brought for bartering. So instead, she pushed the mouse with her foot back to Marshmallow.

Marshmallow seemed to understand that she was not going to get any cat food in trade for the mouse. Donna also hadn’t even given her any dog food. Marshmallow seemed to understand that Donna was telling her to eat the mouse instead of having us feed her.

Marshmallow picked up the mouse, took it away, and seemingly hid it. She was quickly back, acting like she had no other food, asking for something. Donna reluctantly put some dog food in the bowl, and Marshmallow gnawed away at it.

Marshmallow never tried to trade for cat food again, and Donna started adding a few pieces of cat food in the bowl to show her gratitude.

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