Four flatmates who kept being tricked into feeding their overweight cat have come up with a simple solution to keep tabs on the crafty feline’s eating – a chart asking ‘was the b*****d fed today?’
Otto, who lives near Michigan State University, regularly convinces his owner Emily Koziel, and her flatmates Lydia, Shelby, and Kate, that he’s desperately hungry.
He meows – or ‘screams’ – at them until they wake up, and has even learnt to open their bedroom doors, to indicate that he hasn’t been fed.
For months the girls were fooled by the fat cat’s cheeky ways until they created the chart, which Emily then shared on Reddit.
She wrote: ‘Our cat had all four roommates feeding him each day because he acted like he was starving and we didn’t know that the other roommate already fed him.
Michigan State University student Emily Koziel created this chart to stop her fat cat Otto from being overfed
Reddit users loved the creative solution, with many pet owners chiming in with their own stories of crafty cats – including one who sleeps next to a feeder with a timer
‘This was our solution, hopefully he will slim down a bit.’
The chart features a picture of Otto with the caption ‘this is the b****** Otto’.
Reddit users and pet owners related to her struggle, sharing their own tales of cats faking hunger for extra treats.
One user said: ‘We solved the same problem by getting a feeder with a timer. Three times a day, he gets a little kibble. No more begging.
‘Although, I have caught him sleeping with his face in the out-bowl a few times.’
StrangerKatchoo added: ‘My cat is a master manipulator as well. We’re always leaving “Ozzy ate already” notes.’
While another user wrote: ‘Mine acts like she’s starving. To me. 2 hours after I fed her.’
Despite their best efforts, Otto still managed to get fed twice on Wednesday. One user said he overheard someone in the supermarket saying their cat hadn’t been fed in three days because both flatmates assumed the other had been feeding it
Emily told BuzzFeed that Otto ‘screams’ at her flatmates for food all the time – leading to the fat cat getting a double feed on Wednesday despite the chart.
She said: ‘Then he licks our doors, and if that doesn’t work he has figured out to open the door. So I fed Otto that morning, and it was about half a can of cat food.
‘I put it in the fridge and then went to class. I came back that evening and found another half of canned cat food in the fridge, only to find out that Shelby ALSO fed him because he yelled at her for food when she woke up.
‘I swear he knows our sleeping schedule.’
One Reddit user asked: ‘Why do cats do this? Why do they ALWAYS act like they have never ate before in they whole life?’
Another joked that the ingenious cat would soon learn to erase the check marks, while SgtSockMonkey said: ‘Next post – my cat has evolved to the point where all human civilization is threatened and we have no chance against the OH LAWD HE COMIN.’
One user joked that Otto would soon learn to wipe the board clean to get an extra bowl of food, while another said they needed a similar system for keeping track of feeding their children