If you’ve read these entries, then you might know we famously don’t want pets — but like almost anything else, we appreciate them. And it’s very possible that my personal appreciation might now be far less than others in our small family, but that’s only because in a previous life I used to be a cat person.

For many years I was staff for one, so I had plenty of time to study the little beasts and their manipulative ways. They don’t like us. I think they barely tolerate us, but hey, we give ’em food so they stick around to eat. Some say they are evil. I might agree, but I think their’s is a playful kind, more of a totally unspoken and misunderstood low-key quid pro quo, not the slit your throat kind. Maybe.

It’s always fun to meet new people with cats who either don’t realize they are now cat people, or who have been fooled into thinking they are a pet “owner”. I say this in the most loving way possible, but those dupes are my favorite. They just don’t get it. But then, no one does, so.