Check out this crazy cat! Yes, that is a begonia he plans to eat. I bought the double red begonia at the grocery store on Valentine’s Day, thinking I had a nice little gift for myself for $2.47. Because it was still too cold to put it outdoors, I set it on the kitchen windowsill. The plant started shrinking and losing leaves, and the leaves that remained looked like they had paper cuts all along the edges. Newman is not a jumping cat. He doesn’t care to jump up on the countertops or stove, so we didn’t even suspect that he was jumping up in the sink so he could chew on the begonia. As the begonia starting shrinking, my first thought was “it must have a bug in it”. This is the power of denial: We could hear him jumping and said to each other, “That sounds like Newman jumping on the countertops or stove, but he never does that”. We finally caught the little bugger standing in the sink so he could reach the begonia. I repotted the plant and put it outside. It has not grown any more leaves and the only flowers are the few on top. I brought it in the house just for the photo shoot.
Newman stands at the back door and talks to begonia. If I go out the backdoor, he follows me around meowing and begging for the begonia when I come back in. One day I showed it to him with the reprimand “see what you did to this plant”, and he jumped up and snatched off another flower! I really thought he would prefer catnip.
