As a fellow member of the FSU*, Charmion, I sympathise. Ptolemy is a regular little boy: he scratches violently at the glass door first thing every morning to show he's hungry, gets his breakfast from me, then subsides awhile. Once Herself (the source of all good scraps) emerges, he makes a racket till she gives him his second breakfast.

But he's changed his MO this last couple of weeks: no noise first thing, and merely samples whatever Herself puts out for him. We don't know if he's just being extra-picky, or is sickening for something, or is dining at his club**.

* Feline's Staff Union. We get paid in kind, usually at two in the morning.

** "Has he found another family to adopt?"