Feline bait-and-switch

Bait-and-switch is a form of fraud, most commonly used in retail sales but also applicable to other contexts. First, customers are "baited" by advertising for a product or service at a low price; second, the customers discover that the advertised good is not available and are "switched" to a costlier product.

The cats are addicted to their Greenies snacks. I used to give them some in the morning before I left for work and when I got home from work. Then they wanted some in mid-afternoon. And in late-afternoon-but-before-dinner and then ...

In their feline way they can be very persistent and whiny.

Peggy gave us some cat food a while back. It is just cat food, not snacks. But since it is not the cat food they usually get, our cats think it is a special snack. So I get a few pieces and give that to them for their between-snack snack. Seems to make them happy. And since they could go eat out of their bowl anytime,  I don't think I am overfeeding them.

Neither one seems to be getting any fatter. And now when they want snacks, sometimes they go to the place where the non-snacks are kept instead of the real snack jar. I am not sure who is training whom, but it works.