I mentioned it before, Rusty loves if not all but most of the food. And among that food, there are some types or categories that he particularly favors. One of such categories is dairy products.
I can’t remember how it started, but at some point we came to the realization that he loves everything milk-related: milk, yogurt, cream, sour cream, ice cream, etc.
When I use sour cream in our meals or eat yogurt, Rusty always gets to leak the spoon afterwards – and does a great job while at it.
In Winter, one of my favorite desserts is hot chocolate. Rusty learned the process, and once I get milk out of the fridge, even before I open it (so, it’s not the case that he can smell it), he jumps on the counter (the part where he’s allowed to sit) and waits. After I bring milk to boil and pour it into cups with powdered chocolate, while my vSO stirs both cups, I’m busy: I feed Rusty milk film that is left on the bottom of the saucepan. Since it’s hot, I tear small pieces and give them to him. Rusty swallows each next piece in a nano-second and looks at my fingers greedily waiting for the next one. I’m strange, I know: from the childhood I like milk and, what is even stranger, hot milk and milk film. So, I would have eaten it myself. But Rusty loves it so much that I can’t deprive him of this little joy.
* * *
After the pump of the 1 liter bottle of Kiehl’s Creme de Corps stopped producing any output, I opened the bottle and kept it upside down over an empty plastic container from ice cream waiting for what was left to transfer there following the gravity. I succeeded but partially: another physical force in action – surface tension – prevented at least some portion of the cream from flowing down. So, earlier today I decided to “surgically” extract the remaining cream. I took the bottle and the jar to the kitchen, cut the bottle in half with scissors and started scooping the content.
Rusty appeared with a characteristic “meow” – the exact excited sound he usually produces when he observes food that he hopes to get. He jumped to where I was trying to save last milliliters of the cream, hovered over the jar, sniffed… and was clearly puzzled and disappointed by what he smelled: I was in the kitchen; it was an ice cream jar; the content looked like one of those tasty dairy products… and it absolutely didn’t smell as such. Since my hands were in cream, I didn’t want to touch him. So, as I was finishing my exercise in frugality, he just sat there sniffing air and not believing the cruelty of the World.
Undina's Looking Glass 
What! NO, I hope you gave him some dairy treats after that :-)
LikeLike
Trust me: he’s not being deprived in any way ;)
LikeLike
Rusty is the coolest cat I never met.
LikeLike
I’ll tell him :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
The disgruntled look on Rusty’s face as he eyes the suspect bottle!
It doesn’t smell like dairy but I do love the scent of Creme de Corps. I might buy some now.
LikeLike
I don’t know if it’s the case in the UK, but right now Kiehl’s has a great sale for this product: I’ve never seen a better deal, so you might want to check it out. And it lasts forever – even if not to cut the bottle :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poor Rusty- duped by the ice cream container. I was this many years old before I realized you could cut open containers to get the rest of the product out… duh. Managed to get multiple extra uses out of things this year after trying in vain your original method.
LikeLike
I just can’t stand wasting products I love. But yes, it took me a while to figure out that I can get it out this way.
LikeLike
Oh that Rusty…poor thing, tricked and disappointed.
LikeLike
It’s good that he doesn’t remember bad things for too long :)
LikeLike
Poor kitty! Although I had been expecting your story to end with Rusty eating some lotion as a new dessert. My other half used to have a cat who loved to eat Vaseline (!). I’ve definitely cut bottles in half to maximize the amount of lotion I could get out of them, too.
LikeLike
Rusty did leak some creams off my skin, but I think it was more out of desire to wash me than to eat my skincare :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another good story of how indoor cats use all their hunting senses for the kind of “prey” they seek! I like that milk film too, and should offer some to my kitty. Regarding those large lotion bottles, it seems the pump stems are too short. Won’t some clever industrial engineer (hello out there) design a workable stem that could draw up all the lotion?
LikeLike
I find this to be the case for perfumes as well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
In Kiehl’s bottles the pump thingy is long enough, and still it doesn’t work. One of the solutions I saw for face creams was a moving a bottom up as the cream was dispensed.
LikeLike
Poor Rusty, life throws curveballs sometimes. My dogs and cats all loved milk products, too. The dogs especially loved licking empty yogurt, sour cream and ice cream containers. My cat’s favorite treat was cantaloupe! Siamese cats have to be different-lol.
I am always cutting tubes and bottles of lotion to get out the rest of the contents. I love my Yon-Ka hand creams, but there is something about the way they fill the tubes that makes it very hard to get the rest of the handcream out when the tube is about 2/3 empty. Out come the scissors and I cut off the end of the tube and put the rest of the tube in a plastic bag so it won’t dry out.
LikeLike
You got me curious about that Yon-Ka hand cream. It’s on my “to try” list.
Among other strange things, Rusty loves oranges and grapefruits.
LikeLike
Heh! Rusty even looks great in his disappointment! I am just too lazy to cut or slice open anything because I am likely to injure myself in the process and I am lazy.
LikeLike
Rusty looks cute in most situations :)
I can’t help myself: I already have the next bottle that I bought a couple of months ago on sale. But I just can’t throw away that much cream :) I’m counting now how many times I’ll use what is left in that jar.
LikeLike
Poor disappointed Rusty! Animals are so smart. :-) My dogs could all hear a ziploc bag being opened from anywhere in the house. They follow anyone into the kitchen. And they love ice cream, yogurt, and the milk in the bottom of the cereal bowl. I just know you gave him a treat after this photo.
LikeLike
With us staying at home Rusty is being spoiled: he gets treats, pieces of our meal and almost anything else he wants :)
LikeLike
He surely looks disappointed
LikeLike
He was! It was a clear case of a cognitive dissonance :)
LikeLike
Ah, that is too bad for Rusty, but your scissors trick to get the last dregs of something out is one I use too. ;) Oh, and speaking of Rusty meowing in anticipation, Truffle has gone and lost her voice while I was away, so it is off to the vet with her on Monday, unless she starts talking again soon.
PS “Milk film” is a lovely term – I have heard it called “skin” before – but “film” is more expressive and to the point.
LikeLike
I realized that I didn’t know how it’s called in English (you’ll agree: it’s not the mostly discussed topic in a day-to-day life), so I looked it up – and that was what I get from the explanation of what happens to milk when it is being boiled.
Are you sure Truffle isn’t just demonstrating her disapproval of your leaving her alone?
I hope she’ll get better!
LikeLike