Although her diet has been restricted to normal cat stuff for the past few years, for much of her life, Cutie absolutely loved olives and would also drink the olive juice. I wasn't sure how healthy olive juice was for her so I didn't let her drink much of it, but she did like it. During the same period, she liked pineapple. I eat olives from the can, and she still begs for them, probably because she still has a memory of liking them, but when I give her one now, she leaves it sit, and then begs for another, as if I had maybe given her a bad one. Ella is strictly a kibble girl. Kibble and treats. Once in a while, she'll eat canned food but will normally walk away from it. She loves killing all of God's creatures that she can catch but she's a little sociopath, and doesn't seem to consider them to be food.
It's not really a strange thing, but my cats love begging for treats, or begging for bites of whatever we're eating during meals. But I have found, repeatedly, that I can take some of their regular kibble, which is available to them 24-hours a day, and feed it to them piece by piece as a treat, and they will treat it as if it were a treat, and beg for another. I do give them small bits of people food from time to time, but if I'm eating something that can't be given to a cat, I can keep some kibble on the table and give them that instead, and it satisfies them. I think they like the ask and receive gratification more than the actual taste of whatever it is that they receive. I've noticed also, that if I am eating something like a pork chop or steak, they will sit there begging for piece by piece as long as I am still eating but if I have had my fill, and put the plate on the floor for them to eat the rest of it, they're not interested. Again, it's the ask and receive gratification that they are looking for, so if I give it all to them on a plate, that's like feeding them cat food, and they'll walk away from it as often as not.
I had a cat who would beg and yowl for Ambesol! Yep, the stuff people use for toothache pain. Once my ex set a bottle of it in a bookshelf, and I caught Bartholomeow in the shelf, licking the bottle! Of course I grabbed it away from her! My brother had an eccentric cat who loved Karo syrup. After my brother finished his pancakes, he'd let Tom lick the plate!
None of my pet cats ate anything unusual. They love tuna from the can especially Coral tuna. They couldn't wait to get the can from me and eat the oil from the can. I buy nothing buy tuna in oil. My cats did not go for anything unusual like your cats do. It's fun having cats for pets. Cats are more independent and clean too. I like cats best as pets.
@Ken Anderson, our friend who is a dog breeder said that pets, particularly dogs and cats, who are very close to their humans tend to feel like humans so they behave like that. Our first dog, a female named Jedi, was our baby hence she was very close to us. She eats what we eat like chestnuts, grapes, and even soda. The vet had warned us that giving unusual food to dogs can lead to sickness. For one, grape is bad for their kidneys likewise the soda. Chocolates can kill dogs which cause palpitation. With your cat, I guess that is the same behavior it is displaying why it loves what you love to eat. But be careful of taboo food like what I had mentioned - grapes, chocolates.
I had a cat who went wild over the smell of toothpaste and Ben-Gay. If she hopped onto the bed after we'd gotten in for the night and smelled the toothpaste from our recently brushed teeth, she'd try to stick her nose into our mouths, ugh! Once in a great while if sore muscles from whatever and we used Ben-Gay, that cat would try to lick it off us!
Yes, I am all too aware of the strange things cats eat. We try to stop our cats from eating the birds that come into our yard. There is no reason for them to do so after all we feed them well. But it seems to be in their predator instinct or something. Anyway, there are times when I wish they would be more careful about what they eat but this is a cat for you.
Ella is picky about what she eats. She rejects most canned cat food, although I buy only premium foods, and she will rarely even try people food, even if I prepare it particularly for her, without spices, etc. However, she will eat bugs and stuff off the floor that I don't even know what it is. Cutie still begs for olives, although it's been about ten years since she has actually eaten one.
The last cat I had (many years ago) had a great passion for olives and corn. He loll around on his back holding an olive between his paws and lick and gnaw on the olive for an hour. I'd give him an ear of boiled corn that I had been eating and he'd gnaw and slurp on that thing for forever. He'd also eat his dry food with his paws. He'd pick up a piece, stare at it like it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen and then eat it. He'd do that five or six times and then light into the food. Odd cat, he was.
Cutie (who is now 28) used to love olives and, if I let her, she would drink all of the olive juice from a can of olives. Ripe or green, she loved olives and would always beg for them. She still begs for them when I am eating some, probably because she remembers having liked them, but she no longer eats them if I give them to her. She used to like pineapple too.
Your cat is 28, Wow!!! Is this people years or cat years is what I am wondering. I forget exactly how many years it is but for how many years a cat has been alive is times so many years for their cat years age. I'm only asking because I have a cat that is pushing 19 years since she was born. I hope you don't mind me asking. If you do, I apologize.
I don't know that there is a cat-human equivalency, but the calculations used in this article make more sense than multiplying the cat's age by seven, largely because a cat matures quicker in its first couple of years than later in life.