I've Never Been a Cat Person

 With a potty trainer, a pre-schooler, a first grader, a third grader, a sixth grader, a seventh grader and a senior in high school -- around here we are experiencing every stage of childhood all at once!

This article totally describes my life right now---and I'm allergic to cats. :)

Kids are Dogs, Teens are Cats 

by Adair Lara 

I just realized that while children are dogs ... loyal and affection- 

ate ... teenagers are cats. 

It's so easy to be a dog owner. You feed it, train it, boss it around. 

It puts its head on your knee and gazes at you as if you were a 

Rembrandt painting. It bounds indoors with enthusiasm when you 

call it. 

Then around age 13, your adoring little puppy turns into a big 

old cat. When you tell it to come inside, it looks amazed, as if 

wondering who died and made you emperor. Instead of dogging 

your doorstep, it disappears. You won't see it again until it gets 

hungry ... then it pauses on its sprint through the kitchen long 

enough to turn its nose up at whatever you're serving. When you 

reach out to ruffle its head, in that old affectionate gesture, it twists 

away from you then gives you a blank stare, as if trying to remem- 

ber where it has seen you before. 

You, not realizing that the dog is now a cat, think something must 

be desperately wrong with it. It seems so antisocial, so distant, sort 

of depressed. It won't go on family outings. Since you're the one 

who raised it, taught it to fetch and stay and sit on command, you 

assume that you did something wrong. Flooded with guilt and fear, 

you redouble your efforts to make your pet behave. 

Only now you're dealing with a cat, so everything that worked 

before now produces the opposite of the desired result. Call it and 

it runs away. Tell it to sit and it jumps on the counter. The more 

you go toward it, wringing your hands, the more it moves away. 

Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you can learn to 

behave like a cat owner. Put a dish of food near the door and let it 

come to you. But remember that a cat needs your help and your 

affection too. Sit still and it will come, seeking that warm, comfort- 

ing lap it has not entirely forgotten. Be there to open the door for 

it. 

One day your grown-up child will walk into the kitchen, give you 

a big kiss and say, "You've been on your feet all day. Let me get 

those dishes for you." 

Then you'll realize that your cat is a dog again.