Le Petit Déjeuner du chat

What does your cat eat for breakfast? Do you just call it cat food? We call it that, but the company that packages and sells it here in France has more specific ideas. And isn't it nice of them to put a picture of Bertie the Black Cat right on the package?

This morning, for example, Berti enjoyed lapin — that's rabbit — for breakfast. He obviously really likes it. Whenever the package of rabbit comes out of the box of 24 packets, I remember our neighbor telling us about how he saw Bert prancing across his yard one day with a little rabbit in his jaws. He'd been hunting. Bert opened his mouth to meow bonjour at the neighbor and the rabbit got away.

Another flavor of cat food that Bert gobbles down on a regular basis is poulet haricots. That's chicken with green beans. There are actually recognizable little bits of green bean mixed in with the reconstituted chicken, all in an appetizing sauce. Other flavors are volaille carottes — turkey (or fowl, anyway) with bits of carrot — or truite saumon — trout and salmon. Such is the diet of a domesticated and pampered French cat.