u/selfproclaimed

You asked for it, so here it is. Subreddit rules still apply. Please also keep all discussions about Adi Shankar to this thread.

A few weeks ago, I had to go out of town for three days. I have an automatic feeder in place for my cat, but I also asked my mother to swing by my place once a day just to check on my cat and empty the litter box.

I want to emphasize that my cat is a voracious eater. She's at a healthy weight, but will take any opportunity to get at food that she can get. She will lick her bowl clean the moment any food is placed there. Food cannot be left unattended, otherwise she's on it faster than flies on honey. She will beg for food if you even walk near her feeder.

Which is why it was a surprise to me that when I entered my home at about 3:00 PM that my cat had a pile of dry food in her feeder. By my guesstimate, if you cupped two hands and put them into a bag of kibble, you would roughly have the amount that was in that bowl.

Now, the moment I entered and saw who I was, she went straight to the bowl and started eating it, which kinda threw me for a loop. The feeder had never had a malfunction where it overfed her. Furthermore, it wasn't even close to one of the scheduled times of day that it would activate. She's never had problems eating from the feeder when I'm away at work or leaving her alone overnight for one evening. Which leads me to this question that has been bugging me for weeks.

Why did my cat leave all this food untouched while I was gone?