Meowdy,
Welcome to your weekly dose of quality cat content, loosely themed culinary edition!
🎩 Cat Fact: Lincoln once fed his cat from the table during a White House state dinner. 🍽
According to the Presidential Pet Museum (a pet project by a former White House dog groomer), President Abraham Lincoln loved cats so much that he fed one of his cats from the table during a state dinner at the White House.
When the First Lady reproached him, Lincoln retorted: “If the gold fork was good enough for former President James Buchanan, I think it is good enough for Tabby.” Meowch.
^ James Buchanan and Tabby, probably
Read the article for more amusing quotes and anecdotes, including “Dixie [his other cat] is smarter than my whole cabinet! And furthermore she doesn’t talk back!”
🍳 Culinary cats on Youtube, ranked 🏅
Unlike at state dinners, cats are popular cameos in Youtube’s Cooking category — here are my favorite cooking channels featuring cats.
Shoot CZ, just for this 50-second video with this specific soundtrack — the other ones are good too, but I can’t stop watching this on repeat:
JunsKitchen: his videos are the epitome of quality cat content and will make you want to be his cats in your next life. He makes sushi for his cats.
Yedy101: her aesthetically pleasing videos come with her cat‘s judgy look at every misstep. If you have yet to try your hand at the latest trend — dalgona coffee — you can follow her instructions.
🥣 Activity in Captivity: Make chewy cat treats that your cat may or may not enjoy 🍪
I’ve been cooking a lot these days, but none of my dishes are cat-friendly. My cat Ellie loves to sniff the ingredients and eagerly waits at the table to be served, and I hate to disappoint her every time.
After digging through homemade cat treat recipes, I found a pretty simple chewy bar recipe that I decided to try out. Here’s the recipe by Joy the Baker; I was especially excited since between her wet and dry food diet, she rarely gets to enjoy chewiness (something something importance of food texture — also, as an obligate carnivore, shouldn’t she be drawn to chewy things?).
Ellie did not eat any of it. I even tried sprinkling the treats on her kibble, and she ate between them.
My personal takeaway from this is that (1) I’m not a gifted cat treat baker and won’t bother anymore, and (2) will just share unmarinated pieces of chicken going forward (is this the type of quality cat content you signed up for?). But I still had fun, and that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try — you’ll likely have better luck and baking skills!
^ the first and last time I’ve baked something for her
If cooking for your cat while in quarantine appeals to you and you’re a michelin-star-meals-only kinda person, here’s some inspiration (thanks to Anna for letting me share it):
👑 Cat of the Week: Colette! 🍌
Colette is an adorable Purr-sian cat who lives with two other cats, Gucci and Priscilla (ig: gucci_priscilla_colette).
According to her human, Arash F: “Colette is fearless and independent. And despite being hard of hearing, she loves talking on her banana phone.”
Give us your digits girl so that we can call you every day! 😻
Know a cool cat who should be featured or have feedback? Reply to this email (meowmeow [at] substack [dot] com)!