Minnie Moo eats dutch sausage for dinner

Practicing my Puppy Dog eyes

The memory is still fresh in my mind, it was 2008 and a scorching summers day.  Come dinner time the temperature was still heading north, it was sizzling and almost too hot to eat!  Did I just say that?  Ok I said, almost!

Called sticky heat, the air hung around me like a warm icky blanket. When I  went to walk across the street the pavement was so hot you could fry an egg on it.  To get to the other side I ended up doing this weird looking dance on my tippy toes yelling hot, hot, hot, hot, hot..." 

I decided it was best to stay cool inside and conserve my energy for eating, resting my eye-balls and cat-napping. 

Hot weather is tough on us we're furry and the only clothes in our wardrobe are summer and winter coats.  Wearing a furry coat all summer long is not very comfortable and even with our own internal air conditioning system it gets too hot under the coat.

Going for a quick cool swim is out of the question, water for most of my cat buddies, me included, is like eating a bowl of brussel sprouts, eeek!

Anyway back to that summers day the heat wasn't the only thing sizzling, I remember I was lazing-smack-bang-in-the-middle of the kitchen floor taking a little siesta when delicious smells wafted my way and bounced off my nose, the air was rich with beefy porky aromas with hints of a little salt and spice.

Holding my nose higher and sniffing madly I recognised the smells from my days of living on the street and eating left over pizza. Sausage. Not like your typical pizza topping one or the "I don't know what's in it" sausage this was a little more continental.

Round, brown and tied end to end with string, M was cooking dutch sausage, in her Mum and Dad's home country, Holland, they call it Rookworst, a smoked sausage, tasting like a BBQ sausage on the inside but looking nothing like a BBQ sausage on the outside.

Walking away after eating dutch sausage

I must admit at the time I did think it was a little odd that M was cooking dutch sausage on such a hot day.  I'd heard M's Mum say that Rookworst is a favourite treat eaten in winter with pea soup so thick your spoon stands up in it!

It was late by the time M sat down to eat her dinner, I sat on the floor right beside her and gave her my best "puppy dog" eyes and said, "hello! what about me! I haven't eaten anything for oh at least an hour and my Friskies bowl is empty."

My hearing was melting a little in the heat and confusing me a little so I think I heard something like, "sorry Minnie Moo I'm out of Friskies you're going to have Dutch sausage for dinner tonight, tomorrow I'll go to the store and buy you a fresh bag of Friskies."

Turns out I was confused as my hearing was fine I wasn't going to eat any Friskies but rather a bowl of sliced and diced dutch sausage.  That night as I slept (again) I dreamed of life in a far away flat land with windmills, tulips, loads of bikes, cheese and yoghurt, really tall people, cats that are allowed in restaurants and salty liquorice.

Yours in Friskies Minnie Moo