Knowing how Caliban likes his food I'm sure he managed to convince the
cleaner he was a poor starving cat that hadn't eaten for days.

I hope the cleaner has learned somthing without being offended.

Not to take on the cleaners side, but it sounds like he thought he was
just doing a good turn.  He didn't know any better. Many people do not
treat their cats with the same attention we give ours and do not worry
about obesity and have not encountered health problems that need to be
dealt with with their own cats so they are not even really aware that
something serious could happen with a bowl of cat food.

I would suggest you take the action with the thoughtfulness intended and
do just what you did - educate them kindly. It sounds as if the action
was intended to do just what you wanted - help you out. He didn't know.
He wouldn't have known the food was off. If you have it in your flat, he
would have assumed it was good.

Try to look at this from a different angle. Someone who didn't know any
better was trying to do a good deed for you. We should be thankful for
people who try to help us. I have someone who comes in every two weeks
to help me out. She doesn't have to, she just does. What I pay her is a
pittance and it is just an hour every two weeks but she works like crazy
when she comes over. For the most part, she knows my habits and likes
and dislikes, but it is inevitable that she will move things where I
have to look for them or something and I get annoyed for a few minutes.
Then I am thankful because no one else would come in and do what she
does and because of her I am able to stay functional and get on with
getting my life back. It is worth the small annoyances of everything not
being exactly as I like them to have my life back.

I am not suggesting that you need to put up with a second class job,
only if there things here and there that they couldn't possibly have
known about, take it into account, educate and be thankful there are
people who exist who will do this job for you when you can't. People who
are willing to clean for others and take care of them are a special
breed of people who do not get paid enough and are unappreciated.

Bridget - thankful for all the help I can get

I'm pretty sure the cleaner won't do it again. We have a cleaning
service that comes once every two weeks, but I would not dream of not
being in the house while they work. I have to make sure none of the
kitties pulls a Houdini escape.

It's not like he was trying to poison Caliban Marina... the bowl was
empty, he thought the cat was hungry, so he fed it. End of story. I'm
sure he considered it a good deed.

Purrs the cleaner gets a clue.  There is a famous story about FDR's Scottish
terrier, Fala, suffering from gastroenteritis soon after the Roosevelts came
into the White House.  It turned out that Fala had so thoroughly charmed and
conned the White House staff, that they were constantly sneaking him food.
FDR immediately handed down an edict that nobody was to feed Fala except
himself.

I'm sure that your cleaner doesn't mean any harm-- it's probably more that
your adorable Cali has him thoroughly bamboozled with his cuteness.

I'm sorry you're so mad.  Ill-conceived as their treat may have been,
it sounds like they meant well.  The letter is a good idea.  One
meal of dry food, if he even had any, is not going to cause him
lasting harm.  (Although -- it could have if he were diabetic.)

I had to stop a postal carrier once from feeding my dog a large
portion of a chocolate cake.  She certainly didn't mean to hurt him;
she just didn't realize how bad chocolate is for dogs.

I agree that the cleaners should not have made any assumptions and
should have asked you first if they wanted to do something nice for
your cats.

Could have been disasterous for a diabetic kitty. I'm sure they thought
it was a treat. A polite email sounds like the best decision.

I am with you on this Marina.  I would be cross too.  I suppose Caliban gave
him the "I am dropping dead of starvation here" and it might have been hard
to resist.
If I had a cleaner (I wish) once Boyfie had got used to them I am sure he
would try the same thing.  It's not easy to have a very greedy cat.

My neighbour managed to get through 4 weeks worth of cat food in 2 weeks
when I was in Germany (not likely to happen again)
He has no experience with cats.  He's a dog and chicken person.  He said "I
nearly ran out of food for your cats."  Yeah?  I forgot to tell him that
Boyfie can eat more than an elephant, given the chance and he *was* given
the chance because my lovely neighbour wanted to make sure he got enough
while I was away :-)

These tabby and white boys <sigh>

Tweed

I hope so too.  Since you were polite about it, I would imagine your message
got through.  Congratulations on being able to do that.  I would imagine
that once won't hurt him, but you certainly wouldn't want the cleaner to
make a habit of it.

Joy

I  would be furious, and if this isn't fixed I would be asking for a
different cleaner, or getting a different service.  Lee, who wouldn't leave
for a couple of cycles to make the point

[...]

If I'd been looking after your cats for you, I'd have done exactly the
same as your cleaner unless you had given me a very good reason not to.
(The weight problem would have been such a reason, but the kidney disease
scare is just nonsense; if a cat gets enough water there's no issue, and
dry food is better for their teeth).

We've just had someone looking after our cats when we were on holiday
in Istanbul.  We left him a note saying to free-feed all our cats a
mixture of dry and wet food but never under any circumstances to put
out anything with wheat or "cereals" in it, and said exactly what he'd
be dealing with if he got it wrong.  In the event he didn't feed them
in quite the same protocol we use, but they haven't filed a complaint.

What they *did* file a complaint about was me picking up Turkish cats
and cuddling them so my anorak smelt of them.  They registered their
displeasure right on the offending anorak, and I didn't notice until
I was on the bus to work yesterday morning and wondered where the cat
pee smell was coming from.

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