Quick question. Cat jumped onto the kitchen surface and started eating some cold chicken. Advice needed.

[MinkyRobot]

Ok.. So we have a FT Nanny. She isn't the best nanny but she isn't truly awful. The thing is.. she just doesn't seem to care that much. For example - and here's where I need a consensus:

This afternoon, after picking up the smallest from school, for a treat, we bought 3 cakes from the local cake shop. We left them on the kitchen table so the older 2 sisters could have a small bite after school and the rest after dinner. The nanny had taken some chicken out of the fridge, left it on the side, moved the cakes to the same area and then sat down to eat. "Imagine my surprise" when I came downstairs to see the cat merrily chomping on the chicken standing over the cakes.

Now I'm not prissy about eating food that's fallen on the floor (5 second rule etc) but I refuse to cook or eat anything that's been near an animal. So I screamed at the cat, throw the chicken and cakes into the compost and throw the cat out of the house and went back upstairs.

The nanny knows the cat likes jumping up on tables etc.

Inwardly, I feel the nanny should have taken far more care about food handling. What does the mumsnet public think? This is my first post so be gentle !!

Well you left the cakes out ....

I don't get what the nanny did wrong. She can't be expected to control your cat.

Ok - the cakes are perhaps incidental but the point I am trying to make is that the nanny left the chicken in a place that the cat could easily get to, whereas myself and my partner would always be "cat aware". Obviously cats aren't really interested in cakes, it was the chicken she was after.

Thanks all for your feedback so far. It's just heartbreaking (pursebreaking?) to see decent food get ruined though. Money's tighter than it ever has been so perhaps that what's triggering my grrrr reaction right now.

How long's she been with you? I tink you need to talk to her about always putting food away - well, interesting-to-cats food.

I have to do the same, our cat has been known to try cocoa when all else fails (ie crisps, sandwich packets, etc all empty, even going through the recycling and licking margarine boxes)

It's a pain in the arse, but you should technically be able to leave food on a kitchen table for short periods of time without a cat getting involved.

I'd be crosser with the cat tbh - can you keep it out of the kitchen? We can't as cat flap is in there.

I understand by the way. It's one thing that makes me really angry - I have to restrain myself from literally throwing the cat out when she does this!

Why do you have a cat?

I think you need to explain to the Nanny re food hygiene and animals.
Personally I'd have binned the chicken, but not the cakes - but then I've got a cat who doesn't go on work surfaces, so maybe not the best to comment!

If that's to me Line, I have no idea

I suppose she used to behave a bit better, when we got her roughly 8 years ago...she's an old girl now and very cheeky. I couldn't get rid of her now. She's lovely really, just pushes a few buttons.

If I am careful it's not an issue. But I don't have a nanny to persuade to be careful too.

Oh I meant to say we got her when she was 5, she is just 14 now.

I thought you couldn't put meat in the compost?

You could have cooked the chicken up for the cats dinner, would have saved wasting it?

As a complete aside, you shouldn't put meat on a compost heap - actually I've no idea why, but that's what my Dad always told me, and he had an allotment and everything!

If you have a cat that goes onto the countertop and you're paranoid about food that's been near the cat, stop leaving food out yourself!

Yeah, I think the nanny probably isn't used to cats. Just explain to her not to leave food out in future.

With a dog for example they can be trained to leave food alone - cats can't and will go for stuff that they can smell or see. As a cat owner you get used to this and wouldn't leave the stuff where they could get to it. If you're not used to cats you wouldn't necessarily be aware of this - not her fault IMO. Of course if you've explained this and yet it keeps happening then it's fair enough to get annoyed.

It was to the OP, Rooney, but yy to cats being cheeky.

They jump up. I think if a person has a thing about separating live animals from dead animals then maybe don't have a cat ... and if you do, you probabably have to chill out a bit, and possibly wash surfaces a lot if you think they are inherently unhygienic.

Not putting meat onto compost heaps is to do with Rats/Vermin isn't it?

You say you left the cakes on the kitchen table - so you had left them out too. I realise you say nanny moved them and put them on the side with the chicken - but kitchen table/worktop - both left out. If you are the type that doesn't like animals near food (me too) then why have you not trained the cat not to climb on the tables or worktops - it can be done.

And am I the only one thinking "where was the nanny's cake?"

don't stress it op! it's not your nanny's fault you have an unruly cat and you left your cakes on the kitchen table

re: meat in a compost heap - this is just for vermin (foxes, rats etc) but all food goes into a rotating composter which is latched and has no access from the ground, by the time everything comes out ( in about two months) into yet another composting bin (but this one open to the ground + worms), it's in such a horrid state that nothing would touch it.

re: nanny - she's been working for us for over a year now ie She's not new. In another post I'll probably give a background to her. This may seem like a "little thing" but every week there is one more "little thing". The thing is, we're not nanny averse. In fact the last one we had was a genuine super nanny. The problem was she liked kids so much she went off and had one for herself (not one of ours I hasten to add).

It's not the "you shouldn't leave food out" for me as I know that, but it was the general just "I don't really care about the fact the cat was eating tomorrow's dinner" attitude about the nanny. What should I be expecting ?

Is it just me who would have checked for cat hair and ate them anyway?

'The nanny had taken some chicken out of the fridge, left it on the side, moved the cakes to the same area and then sat down to eat'

I don't understand this bit. Was she eating in the same room as the cat/chicken/cakes? Was she sat eating her lunch, watching the cat eat the chicken? Or had she gone out the room and then the cat had got up on the side without her knowing?