The cat turns up her nose (June 10)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
The cat in whose house we live has started turning up her nose at her food, probably because I bought her a new bag of grub which she hadn’t eaten before.
She is like a lot of people I know. Even though a change might be good for them, they fight it. I am one of those people. Years ago, I embraced change, but something happened when I wasn’t looking, and now a change has to look pretty darn good to me before I’ll give it a chance.
I think a lot of the reasons why people have a hard time giving up habits that aren’t good for them is that they would rather not be bothered with changing. For example, if you are a smoker, pulling a cigarette out of a pack, lighting it and taking a puff seems a lot more compelling than doing something else, such as eating a tomato.
I had a colleague at a newspaper where I worked years ago whose doctor told him to stop smoking, so he came up with the idea of bringing some tomatoes to work with him. Whenever he thought it would be a good idea to light up a cigarette, he would eat a tomato instead. He would eat it as a person normally eats an apple. He had a salt shaker in his desk, and he would put a little salt on it as he ate.
At first, we all thought he was crazy, but darned if he wasn’t able to quit smoking. Only he couldn’t stop eating tomatoes with salt on them. He’d bring a brown grocery sack of tomatoes every shift.
One day, though, he showed up at the office without a bag of tomatoes. “Where are your tomatoes?” I asked.
“The doctor says I can’t eat them anymore unless I stop salting them,” he said. “I have high blood pressure. And who wants a tomato without salt? I think I’ll start smoking again.”
Well, even though the cat doesn’t smoke, and doesn’t eat tomatoes, I’m sure she would like to get back to her favorite food as soon as possible. She’ll have to wait for the weekend, though. I haven’t got time right now to go to the store.
