Cat-tales

Last night my sister Abra called me to congratulate us on our new kitty. She mentioned being sure to get the cat "fixed" and Benjamin's face fell. "What happened to her?" he asked. "Is she broken?"

I told him that getting a cat "fixed" meant making it so they can't have babies. There's nothing wrong with her. We just don't want her having babies.

Miriam asked if cats can have babies without mating. I told her they couldn't, but we still didn't want her going into heat.

Zoë admitted it would be bad if she crawled into the heater.

We are learning so much about biology!

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This morning Miriam came upstairs to tell me how our silly kitty was dipping her feet into her water dish and licking it off (which is the only way we've seen her drink). "So she dipped her little paw in and started pruning herself," Miriam said, mimicking her movements.

"I think you mean preening," I said.

"Miriam says I'm not careful enough with the cat," Benjamin said in a snooty voice. "She says she's the only one who can pet her while she's pruning herself."

"Again, it's preening," I said. 

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Alexander came up to me this afternoon and out of the blue asked me for pancakes.

"I don't have any pancakes," I said. 

"Will you help me find pancakes?" he asked.

"I'm really not sure we have any pancakes to find," I said.

He slapped his forehead and said, "I meaned Waffelles!"