Good morning. Thousands of Cornell students and faculty joined a protest march against the university’s administration last night as the school continues to grapple with allegations of sexual assault on campus. There’s a lot more below — including a fascinating look at the power of geography. But first, a few words about our pets and their palates.
Picky eatersYou know what’s a big business? Cat food. Americans spent more than $17 billion on the stuff over the last year, an increase of 14 percent from the same period in 2024. A lot of it’s fancy, “human-grade” food designed to improve health, with recipes that are said to aid aching joints, strengthen muscles or keep the old cat brain humming along. Those kitties we picked up during the pandemic aren’t getting any younger. “Aging is one of the biggest opportunities,” one pet-food executive told The Times. Her company’s senior cat food line includes an extra-soft mousse for old cats and an easy-to-eat kibble for even older cats. Purina last year brought out a “tender cuts in elegant jelly” creation, shaped like a pyramid to encourage cats to take wide bites. Of course all this stuff is expensive. I can tell you that from experience with both cats and dogs. My elderly Labrador eats the same kibble she’s been eating since she was a puppy and never complains. My young Lab used to eat raw beef, chicken feet, salmon heads and lots of liver, until we put her on the old one’s kibble program. (Much easier and far less expensive. The raw meat situation was like a MAHA fever dream.) My old cat, though? That fellow demands canned turkey pate twice a day until he suddenly turns his nose up at it and wants, what — the beef one, the chicken, the fish? Keeping his larder full costs as much as the dog food — and he weighs 80 pounds less than each of the girls. Sometimes all he’ll eat is kibble, then stare at me, slightly malevolently. I used to be a restaurant critic. If my cat did that job, there’d be no raves. He’s the Anton Ego of feline cuisine. And he’s not alone. Jenny Gross, one of our business reporters, traveled to southern France recently to visit a research facility owned by Mars (yes, the candy makers), where dozens of judgmental cats like mine chill out in a kind of day-care facility, waiting for dinner time. When it comes, the researchers present each cat with two choices of food, with scales beneath the trays to measure how much of each they consume. Then they monitor their postprandial behavior. Are the cats more lethargic than usual? Playful? (The researchers study dogs as well.) They use the data from the discerning animals to adjust recipes and come up with new ones. One factory manufactures 146 types of kibble.
Hot tuna!A researcher at another feline taste-testing center, in England, told Jenny his team was especially interested in understanding the senses and tastes of cats. They wanted to know why cats don’t prefer sweet foods, for instance, and why they like tuna so much. “He said researchers determined that cats had the umami taste receptor,” Jenny writes. “Tuna has a unique combination of compounds that is akin to ‘super umami’ for cats,” the researcher told her. My cat’s unfazed by the stuff, though. He just wants what he wants. I continue to attempt to fathom what that is, knowing that he’ll want something entirely different tomorrow, or next week. In this regard, anyway, | ||||||||||||||||||||
