My babies are growing up... sniff

Johnny & Simon will be a year old in May. Wow! They still seem like naughty little kittens sometimes - but I guess they are pretty much still teenagers.

They are slowly maturing, though. Finally, after over a year of living with us, Johnny is almost to the point where he can eat next to Simon unsupervised.

(Note: If Johnny had his way, he would be a grotesquely obese cat and he'd be perfectly happy about it. It is only through strict monitoring of his food intake that he remains just mildly overweight.)

So Johnny has a food bowl, and Simon has a food bowl. They've both eaten all kinds of food since we've had them, but now Johnny is on a prescription hypoallergenic diet (= costs $$) and Simon is eating whatever I can get for free. The deal with Johnny's diet is that we're testing him for a food allergy, so if he eats anything besides his special food, that can mess up the results.

Previously, Johnny would gobble his food (think about the "Hungry Hungry Hippo" game), and promptly head over to Simon's bowl for dessert. When they first came to live with us, one of them would always get locked in his carrier while they both ate.

Eventually we got to the point where, if you were standing right next to them, brushing your teeth or something, Johnny would just sort of mope around pathetically after he finished eating, but not dive into Simon's food unless you turned your back.

NOW, you can actually leave the room while the cats are eating, and Johnny will finish his food and go off by himself after about 80% of his meals. (The other 20% of the time, he really wants Simon's food. But if he goes toward the other bowl, and you catch him, he'll cut it out if you say "no.")

The only issue is that Johnny has apparently decided that any food that falls out of Simon's bowl is fair game for him if he can reach it with his paw and pull it closer to him. It's pretty cute to watch. If you're standing there, he will simultaneously look up at you (with an "Am I going to get in trouble?" look) and reach his paw out to grab the food. And yes, he always gets in trouble...