Feeding time at the zoo

It is feeding time at the zoo again. My zoo that is. The bird is easy - empty seeds, pour in new food, clean water dish and fill with clean water, add a couple drops of vitamins. Occasionally I even get ambitious and chop up some fruit and add it in the bowl too. The rest of the pets are more complicated. Each cat has different food. One of my older cats, Smudge, is diabetic, so has prescription food for that, the other, Storm, has prescription food for crystals in his bladder. Don't ask me to explain that, just accept that it is needed. The youngest cat, Mercury, has non prescription food. The dog, Wolfka, eats dog food. Four pets, four bowls, four foods. Sounds fairly simple, but it isn't. See, Mercury likes the dog food, which isn't good for him. The dog hides if Mercury challenges her for the food bowl. Yes, I did say that the 60 pound dog hides from the 10 pound cat, it would be funny if it weren't so pathetic. As soon as Mercury has vacated his food bowl, Smudge comes running. She really likes his food, which incidentally is the highest in sugars and therefore the worst for her. That leaves her bowl free for Storm, who really needs to eat his food, but would prefer hers. What that means is that I am in for spending about 20 minutes shuffling cats from bowl to bowl, all the while trying to convince the dog that she actually can eat her own food. I guess they all enjoy this ritual, because they are currently sitting all around me and making pitiful noises. Guess I better get going.