You may remember me as the person living in Italy who took in 2 stray cats -- Paczki and Tang -- but this time I'm asking about my domestic female cat and an odd tic she's been displaying.
This poor little cat's life was completely upended for a month because I became ill enough to need to relocate to another apartment nearer to medical care until I recovered, and my spouse came once a day to feed the cat, who otherwise was left alone, indoors. She always had plenty of food and water, but emotionally this cat has always behaved as if she were my cat alone -- not my spouse's -- and several times she ran out of the house, refusing to come back in (my landlady would finally catch her, although once the cat ended up spending a night outdoors -- fortunately it was quite mild, no rain).
In the confusion surrounding her feedings while I was not there, the other 2 stray male cats would sometimes run in and steal her food, although they were always chased out. Sometimes the indoors girl cat -- Miuccia -- would get confused and want to eat with them outdoors, on their plates, and they would bat her away. No injuries that I can see.
I have since recovered fully and returned home, and needless to say, Miuccia is thrilled to see me! She sleeps on my lap, on my shoulder, she purrs and coos. But she has developed strange eating patterns -- in particular, she will whine and dance for food as always, but when I put down a plate of her favorite wet meat, she will gobble a bite, and then suddenly snort it out, then dash away from the bowl as if a bee had stung her. Or she will snatch just a bite of food from the bowl and then run away with it to the sofa or another room, and eat it furtively . But after that, she loses all interest in eating any more from the same plate.
I have examined her mouth and nose, and cannot see anything wrong, and she does not resist me when I do this as if I were causing her any pain. Sometimes, overnight, the food is gone in the morning. But I am getting concerned she is eating so little of the food she previously always begged ford. I try to trick her with a different flavor or brand entirely, or some dry food. She remains wary. Once or twice she has done some snorting and fleeing -- it's almost like a bark -- when no food at all is involved.
I am thinking that my absence made her confused and nervous, and that the disruption in her food routines -- competing at times with the other, pushier cats -- is making her act out some upsetting memories in this way.
But is it possible she has developed an allergy to her favorite foods? Might I be missing a tooth issue or tongue issue? Why is she doing this?
Alll help appreciated! (And in a future post, I'll catch you up with Tang and Paczki)
) I don't know exactly what got broken (I had not even noticed that my landlady had put up a creche), but I returned from the store to find her sweeping up glass and understandably distressed about this turn of events. 
She is especially upset I think because she knows the ebony cat has an owner up the hill who is not taking care of the cat, so the cat is hanging out here, hungry and disruptive and spreading fleas, so she might pay a holiday visit to the owner up the hill. 
