Children As Pets - The Cat Years
I just realized that while children are dogs -- loyal and
affectionate -- 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
doorsteps, 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 remember 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,
comforting 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 your cat is a dog again.
[ Author Unknown -- from 'The Funny Bone' (daily-fun@yahoogroups.com) ]
Inspirational Humor
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