After years of happily gobbling down every bite of Friskies tuna wet food that was offered, all twelve of the kitties we feed simultaneously refused to eat anything containing their formerly favorite fish. And when even feral kitties -- whose choice of entrees is usually limited to lizards and bugs -- suddenly turn their noses up at any type of canned food, you know something’s up.
We looked at the labels of the remaining cans for a clue as to what changed. The only difference we were able to discern between the universally scorned tuna products and the ones our kitties would eat was that the new cans were now labeled, “Pet Food Only.” (I don’t want to think about why it was necessary to add that disclaimer. Ewww.) Everything else looked the same.
So we called Friskies.
It turns out that the folks at Friskies used to make all of their canned tuna cat food in American Samoa with fish caught near the Friskies plant. But late last year, the Friskies plant was destroyed when a tsunami hit American Samoa. Twenty two people lost their lives.
Not wanting to leave their customers without tuna cat food, Friskies contracted with a company in Thailand to take over production while the plant in Samoa was rebuilt. Thai cat food producers use Thai tuna, which, according to kitties all over the United States, is apparently vastly inferior to the Samoan tuna to which they have become accustomed. At the urging of the customer service rep, we looked at the label of the snubbed tuna wet food again, and sure enough, “Product of Thailand” was printed just above the bar code.
The mystery has been solved.
The good news for Friskies tuna-loving kitties everywhere is that the plant in American Samoa is back up and running, and the first batches of Samoan tuna cat fud will be back on the shelves in about a month.
The good news for us is that the fine folks at Friskies are sending us a coupon for a free case of canned cat food.
