I am sure I told this story on the old fora, but the cat Advent calendar story made me think of it. The shelter where I volunteer sometimes has cats at one of the Big Box Pet Stores, and I used to do a volunteer shift there. One day on my shift, one of the sales reps for a boutique pet food line came up to me and said that she'd just bought back the entire line of their product that the store carried to replace it with their new improved line, and that she'd love to donate it to our shelter. (It was still unexpired and in the original packaging, which is all the shelter requires for donations.) I thanked her profusely and we fit about seventy five pounds of various foods and treats in the trunk of my car which I dutifully brought to the shelter.
When I did my shift at the shelter proper, I was so excited to give the cats some expensive boutique treats. I remember one was "duck and quinoa" flavor. Now, my shelter feeds "whatever we get donated" to all the animals unless the animals really need a special diet, and a lot of the shelter cats are picked up as strays and are happy to get meals brought to them on a regular basis instead of having to hunt them themselves. Most of them tuck in like they haven't seen food in days when they get their breakfasts. So you'd think they wouldn't be picky.
Every single cat turned up their noses at the fancy schmancy treats and begged for ones from the usual treat jar of "meat" flavored treats instead. It was hilarious.
