(Via AJC) We have a sass problem in our family.
Teen-age sass.
Talk back, argue, and try to negotiate every boundary kind of sass.
“Take away their iPads!” you suggest. “Send them to their rooms!” you insist.
Thank you very much for your parenting input.
Thing is …
The sass, well, it’s not coming from either of the two teenagers who make their home under our roof.
It’s coming from —the cat.
The three-legged cat.
Pisa is her name. As in “Leaning Tower of …“ The cat, who if I’m honest, I will admit is result of a rebound relationship.
Tripod was my first three-legged cat. My great love for 19 years!
You, fellow animal lover, can imagine the hole in my heart when ‘Pod died.
Four months after ‘Pod passed, I got an email. It from a local cat rescue group and went something like, “I heard you are the crazy cat lady who takes in three-legged cats. We have this cat we’ve tried to place for more than two years, perhaps you could see it in your crazy cat lady heart to take her in.”
“I’m not ready for another cat,” I warned, “but I can come meet her.”
I know. I know. You’re laughing already.
Truth is, this was not love at first sight.
“I guess I could ‘foster’ her for a bit,” I said hesitantly as they shoved me out the door, cat carrier in hand.
“She sure talks a lot,” I confessed to my even more animal-loving sister.
“That’s just her settling in,” she assured me. “She’ll be better in six months.”
Wrong.
Five years later, I can tell you this is like having the late Joan Rivers in a cat, “Can we talk?”
“Can we talk about food at 5:30?” 5:30, as in a.m.
“Can we talk about how I want to be held?” “Can we talk about how I want to go outside?”
To not engage or even worse, not meet Pisa’s request, is to hear the sass, the negotiating, or if she’s feeling extra emotional, to be treated to a recounting of her two-plus years in the cat shelter.
Imagine a 10-minute out-of-tune meow in C-sharp.
The question becomes, Dear Reader, what to do with a sassy cat who has a lot to say?
My husband has some ideas, few of which are legal or involve keeping the cat. (continue reading)