What a beautiful kitty! I have always had a soft spot for Calico kitties.

We had a similar food situation when we adopted our last cat. She was given up to a cat shelter because the person was moving into a place that didn't allow pets. At least that was their 'story'. When we got her home we noticed she would instantly run to the food dish as soon as we walked in the door from work/shopping/gardening... And there was always food in the dish. We think it was her pavlovian conditioning that whenever her human came home (which I am guessing was infrequently) is when she would get fed. I could get home from work and she'd run to her dish, then step out quickly to take the garbage out seconds later and when I came back she would run to her dish again. It was so sad. She ballooned in weight right away from all the gorging (but strangely no throwing up). It took her over a year to learn that there would always be food in her food dish and now she is a beautiful (but pudgy) little girl.