At one time, we even had a cat that would sit up to be fed a treat. We always gave him tidbits of our food at the dinner table each night, and he would make the rounds to each of us, catch the person's eye, and then sit up with his little paws folded in, looking just as cute as could be. The kids loved his begging act, so he was never short on treats at mealtimes.
One night, my in-laws came over for dinner. Since they did not particularly like pets, we locked up all of the cats and put the dog out in the back yard before dinner.
Somehow, El Cid , our cat, sneaked back into the house, and no one knew he was there until we were in the middle of dinner.
Out he sauntered, twitcing his tail, and then he walked right over to my father-in-law's chair and sat down and looked at him straight in the eye.
My father-in-law looked back at him , giving him the "what do you think you are getting ? " look.
That cat just sat up and folded his little paws, and waited.
All of us around the table were collectively holding our breath to see what happened next. To our amazement and joy, he took a small piece of chicken off of his plate and gave El Cid his bite of food.
Then , my father-in-law looked around at all of us intently watching him, and he smiled at us. It was a good dinner after all......
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