Is it possible to cook with your cat? Yes, it is and I do it often with my Maine Coon, Jasmine Dee, looking lovingly from my arms into soups, stews eggs and the like. But doesn’t that make things more difficult, you might, as a sane person, inquire? Yes, but I do it anyway is my battle cry. Why would that be, you wonder? Because I have no choice is the answer. Allow me to explain.
My Maine Coon loves to be with me at all times. While this is adorable and sweet, it can also be annoying, as she doesn’t understand that I have a life above and beyond her. I do love her very much, however, and try to include her as much as possible in my daily routine. She sits on a chair in the kitchen while I work at the stove, but that’s usually not close enough to me and so she cries for attention. The moment I pick her up, there is an immediate rollover to purring, and she purrs even louder if I rock her in my arms.
And so, that’s what I do. I hold this twelve-pound cat in one arm and stir my soup or whatever in the other. When my arm gets tired, I change to the other and so forth. Needless to say, culinarily speaking, this requires some thought and planning and limits what I can accomplish at the stove. I have figured out that if I rock her heavily for a few minutes, she has had enough, and will often jump out of my arms and stay away, but not for too long. That’s when I peel my onions, etc. There’s no way to lock her out of the kitchen, and if I lock her anywhere else, she would cry until I would feel so guilty I wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything anyway.
So Jasmine Dee and I cook together. We are both learning a lot. Yesterday she promised to show me how to make a soufflé!