Richard Maine Coon

Richard Maine Coon. Richard was a Maine Coon breed cat taster.

Let me tell you about our beloved Maine Coon cat named Richard. He came to us after his previous owners gave him up for a simple reason — they couldn’t train him to use the litter box. The cat was soiling the house (How to stop your cat from soiling in the house).

Eventually, the kitten’s owners decided to give him to us as a present. Although I refused the gift as much as I could, my husband convinced me. In the evening, Richard crossed the threshold of our house.

Surprisingly, the kitten quickly got used to the litter box. Perhaps he didn’t like his previous owners and decided to get rid of them in this way. But the fact remains. Richard was our taster. He amazingly sensed expired and poor quality food products. We fully relied on his sense of smell.

Once, our relative came to visit us while we were cooking dumplings. We sat him at the table and he jokingly said that he wouldn’t eat until our taster tasted it — maybe the meat wasn’t fresh.

Richard was sitting nearby and somehow immediately became alert, as if he understood the conversation. The relative offered him a dumpling on a fork, Richard looked at me questioningly, and I nodded. The cat carefully took the dumpling from the fork and put it on his plate. After eating the treat, he looked at the relative in bewilderment, as if he was about to scratch his head with his paw. And then he left the room.

And the relative ate the whole bowl of dumplings.