Cee Webster made the decision to visit the animals at the Pixie Project in Portland, Oregon while she was having a rough day about two years ago.
There, Webster first encountered two brother-like 8-week-old kittens that were best friends.
“I’m allergic to cats, and definitely shouldn’t have cats,” Webster told. Webster didn’t expect that the visit would go beyond a quick — if sniffly — snuggle session.
“Tucker was this tiny little nugget and he started kneading on my face and purring,” Webster said.
Then Webster went about the day — but kept thinking about Tucker and Finley. “I just felt like those cats are special,” Webster said. “I was like, ‘I just have to go get them.’”
Obviously, Webster couldn’t imagine separating them. So that’s how a person with a cat allergy ended up with two cats. “The mental health benefits outweigh having terrible allergies,” Webster said.
Since being adopted, Tucker and Finley have essentially had it made. Their human is completely in love with them, and they are showered with attention.
These guys are great buddies, according to Webster. “They groom each other and sleep together.”
In order to keep them somewhat trim, Webster tries to keep them moving right before supper because they are also fed generously.
Webster established a regimen with their “mousies,” or small toy mice.
Finley is the most physically fit of the two, according to Webster. He enjoys playing fetch with his mousie, which I will toss, and he will retrieve.
Since starting this exercise routine, both cats have come to associate mousies with dinnertime. Toy mousies are a kind of feline aperitif.
At one point, Webster decided to buy an automatic feeder. “I got them the feeder so they could have some dry food throughout the day and it would portion it out,” Webster said. “It’s on a timer, too. So maybe they wouldn’t wake me up at 5 in the morning.”
When Tucker and Finley first saw the food robot, they had some serious reservations. They were alarmed when Webster initially set it up because it produced an odd noise, he claimed. “And Finley made his way out with his tail up.”
But after they understood the robot’s true function, they began to like it. Now when they hear that noise, Webster said, “they run over.” “They are also aware of the time it occurs. They arrive there and wait for five minutes.”
When this happened, Tucker and Finley’s affection for the robot grew; Webster recently had a very tangible epiphany while gazing down at the bowl.
One of the cats had brought a mousie over to the robot and offered it to it.
And it wasn’t a one-time thing. “They used to bring me mousies. Now they bring the food robot mousies,” Webster joked online.
Even though one of Webster’s main functions for Tucker and Finley has been rendered moot, the cats do seem to recognize that their human is still good for pets and snuggling.
Webster is still unsure about their relationship to the food robot.
It’s similar to the singularity, when artificial intelligence takes over, according to Webster. When I walked downstairs this morning, there was literally a mousie in the meal dish.
