Buttons has been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Mostly seems ok, but he’s had trouble with food. He’s hungry and demands food, but when presented with food he just sorta looks at it sadly and walks away. Best guess: his sense of smell or taste has been messed with. He wants food, he sees food, but he doesn’t *smell* food. And thus we get this portrait. He lay there for several minutes looking sadly at a pile of his favorite food.

A talk with the vet was unenlightening. So, I had to science the ᛋᚻᛁᛏ out of the situation. New bags of his normal food also did not pass muster, so it wasn’t a problem with the specific bags of food. Several bags of entirely different brands didn’t work. Treats, however, worked. But he can’t subsist on treats… partly because they’re just not that great nutritionally, but mostly because Buttons requires a special diet due to a predisposition to forming some sort of crystals in his urinary tract.

So, problem: cat wants food but won’t eat food. Hypothesis: his sense of smell is diminished. Observation: he will eat treats. Observation: treats are a lot stronger smelling that normal food.

Experiment one: Mix treats with food. Result: Buttons picked the treats out… but *did* eat some food in the process. Didn’t spit out bits of food, but didn’t seek them out, either.

Experiment two: crush treats to powder, mix with food, shake vigorously. Now food smells like treats. Result: Buttons eats *almost* like normal.

The root cause is as yet unresolved, but a workaround has been produced that will hopefully function adequately until things hopefully return to normal. Hopefully.

Banshee posing on a couch. This was not a brief moment; she sat this way for quite some time.

Speedbump sitting atop the couch.