Lucille Dumbrava

The newspaper supermarket ad lies open on the table. I have already gone through it and circled all the specials. Like many salaries, pensions do not allow for many luxuries, and so my diet and eating habits largely revolve around what's on sale.

Okay, cereal - not my favorite bran flakes with oatmeal crunch nuggets, but the supermarket special of shredded wheat. Cheddar is on sale; I make a mental note that macaroni and cheese will appear a few times on the table next week. I look with some longing at the featured T-bone steak. At $4.99, it is still too pricey. So ground beef goes on the list along with spaghetti sauce and noodles. Forget the Mediterranean Diet, my list is ruled by the Social Security Diet. Dish detergent, paper towels. Apples.

Then, I start my search for cat food. There is one brand listed, and the price is not too bad. Unfortunately, my crew of ever so finicky kitties won't touch the stuff. So I add their favorite brand of canned food to the list. Then I add tartar treats, anti-shedding treats, vitamin treats, and three kinds of kibbles. We use sensitive stomach kibbles, hairball control kibbles, and special chicken and rice kibbles made from free range chicken and brown rice.

Next come the specialized foods: one to help Koala's arthritic joints, one to prevent hairballs, one to ensure glossy fur. Almost done. Next, I put down pill-pocket treats to get Tuffy's medicine down her and a special treat to sweeten their breaths.

No shopping list is complete without litter. There are three litter boxes, two filled with clay litter and one with pine litter. In the clay litter, I have my choice of scented or unscented, perfumed, herbal-scented, multiple-cat, instant odor reduction, long-lasting odor reduction, or generic. Of course, the cats won't use generic, so two bags of multiple-cat, unscented litter go on the list. And a bag of pine litter.

Almost done. I'm low on catnip to fill the toys, so that goes on the list. New toys, always bought in sets of three to avoid jealousy, are next thing I write down. A replacement collar, flea wipes, beef-flavored toothpaste, new insert for the scratch box, litter pan liners, and extra strength garbage bags for when I change the boxes.

There, done! I look back over the list to see if there's anything I've forgotten. Looks right. I do a quick count. Nine items for me, twenty-two for the cats. Not much speculation on the balance of power in this household. I add up the list and see that the new pants I'd hoped to buy will get put on hold for another month.

Do I regret a penny? Of course not. Mac and cheese and hamburgers gain extra spice from the three purring kitties at my feet.

Lucille Dumbrava is a retired Teacher/counselor whose love of cats and love of writing started when she was a child. Many of her stories about the cats in her life have been collected in a book entitled CatHouse, now available from www.bookstandpublishing.com, Amazon, Alibris and local Northern California bookstores. You can also order directly from Lucille. She can be reached at Ldandcats@catsfamily.com