For lunch at our house, we have an extra helping of cute. Obi has taken to reaching toward the counter while I’m making my sandwich. It is adorable because it is so ineffective. Not like when Oliver stretches his super long body up the side of the counter and can place his paw firmly in the middle of your lunch.
"Must...have...turkey..."
Oh, by “ineffective” I mean Obi gets about half the turkey I’d intended for my sandwich as a reward for his cuteness. Yeah, cute carries a lot of weight in my world.
The second picture is Oliver coming for his share of turkey. He knows there is turkey to be had because Obi’s squeaks have turned from “can I have turkey? Can I have turkey?” to “you’re giving me turkey? You are giving me turkey!” This picture is taken from the same height as the first, so you can see the height difference.
"I don't know why Obi begs for food. So undignified."
Kitten Thunder: Life lessons and cat tales 
My cat Isabel has me trained so well, that I give her food before she starts begging. Also, she’s been known to dip her paw into my cereal bowl. And grab the spoon out of my hand when I’m eating yogurt. Precious, really.
The boys have been so well behaved in the past; this is a totally new behavior. Oliver doesn’t even like people food, he just wants to be involved – though he can hear a can being opened from across the house. Heck, he can hear you LOOKING at a can and will come to see if it is tuna.
My girl, Poco, was like Isabel. I fed her before I ate, while I was eating and after I was done. Since I always ate on the couch I became an expert and avoiding the “reach over this should and put you tail in the food from the other shoulder” approach of food sabotage. I noticed your cats are dilute torties – you totally know what I’m talking about.
The only way to be completely at peace while eating was to buy her a cantaloupe…she would gnaw on it for hours.
Cantaloupe? Really? Well, now I know what my girls and I are doing this weekend.
Callie Jean seems to think just because she’s licked something, I won’t eat it… silly cat! It does become a problem when she takes food and hides it under the furniture.
Now the licking might stop me. But they wouldn’t get it either.
Thankfully he’s grown out of this, but Oliver used to chew through packaging to get at bread and cookies. He once chewed a hole in an Oreo package and all the cookies were gone in a perfect circle where he could get his nose in. So everything was stored in the oven (not like I was using it anyway). When The Boy and I started dating, he turned on the oven to cook a pizza…without checking for stuff inside! Silly boy almost melted my bread.
I still keep bread and rolls and such in the microwave because I once had a cat who would chew thru the bags… that was several cats ago, but now I’m gun-shy!