Cats and pre-adolescent girls

I had a kitten on my last post. Mere co-incidence.

At the end of my hard, tired day, I walked in the door. My daughter (12) said, "daddy!" as she frequently does, and came toward the door. She was toting our big expressionless gray cat over her shoulder.

As she was passing my older son, who was sitting at the computer, she said, "Dad! Today, I..." But she saw him opening email, and there was a series of those pictures. You've seen them - pictures of cats with big, white, uber-yuckity captions, captions like "Dont mess with me!" and some quirky feline caught in an odd pose.

She didn't finish her sentence, ever. I waited, nonchalantly browsing the refrigerator, curious what she had to say, but too tired and, well I want my kids to delight in telling me about their day. I dont want to be one of those parents, following them around, begging for details about who their friends are or how the science quiz went.

By the end of the email, I had given up and was heading back to the bedroom to change. She saw me.

"Oh! Um...!" She was back on track. But, on the TV, which was on, which is usually NOT on when I get home, because we are not a TV family, in fact we watch almost no TV at all, well, the TV was on.

On the TV screen was...ahem...a news story about orphaned kittens, and she again did not finish her sentence. She hadn't even started it. All the while, she was carrying around our limp, annoyed, poker-faced gray cat.