So funny..yet so true!

With only a few months before I have my first teenager..I thought this was appropriate!

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.