Thanks A Lot, Yahoo!

For months now, we've been worrying that our wonderfully weird cat (who still has no name)is not getting enough exercize.

We decided to put her on a diet, even though she doesn't eat all that much in the first place. Being an indoor cat is taking a toll on her naturally active inner-killer, and she spends her days lounging on the sofa and gazing out at the world.

After a few days on the diet, we searched the Internet for ways to cure kitty boredom. I found what I thought was a great Yahoo! article about ways to help put some outdoor adventure into indoor cats' lives. It suggested a "puzzle feeder", which I immediately made out of a shoebox and some tape. I cut a hole in the side big enough for her paw and put a scoop of food inside. The cat was busy for an hour (obviously hungry from her few days on the diet) picking out pieces of food, one by one, and eating them off of the floor. We thought our problems were solved and we had a happy cat on our hands once again.
We let this go on for a week, feeding her mostly from her puzzle feeder. Then one day she knocked over her treats so violently that the container burst open and she was able to eat several handfuls before we caught her. It was then that we first started to question the article's "work for food" advice. So we started feeding her in the bowl and leaving food in the puzzle box (for her adventurous moments). We thought this was the answer and all was well until, a week later, we noticed the food in the bowl wasn't getting eaten as much as usual. We assumed she just really loved her puzzle box.
A few days ago, as we ate our dinner, the cat decided to eat her dinner, too. We looked down to see the cat taking food pieces from her bowl one at a time and eating them off of the mat. Then she moved on to the water, pawing droplets out onto the floor and licking them up. Thanks a lot, Yahoo! for training our cat to be obsessive compulsive.

On the upside, she is spending less time on the couch but only because her new method of eating takes hours.