Sunday, December 11, 2005
(3:57 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Sunday Cat Blogging
Due to the fast-paced, exciting life I lead, I often tell stories about Anthony and Hayley's cats. Even with my recent change in employment status, I still spend more time in the house with the cats than I do in any other social situation. But this brings up the issue of how to refer to them. Calling them "Anthony and Hayley's cats" or "my roommates' cats" is cumbersome, but calling them "my cats" is just untrue -- I only very occasionally feed them in the morning, and I've cleaned their litter box only once, in a true emergency situation, so I'm clearly disqualified not just on the level of legal ownership but also on the level of caregiver status."The cats" is a good compromise for conversational purposes, but just now I thought of a more precise way to denote my relationship with these particular cats. I get to enjoy the benefits of having cats -- in fact, one of them is sitting on my lap as I write this -- but in the last instance, someone else has to clean up the mess and pay for their upkeep. Thus, we could say that they're my "grandcats."
This fits even better since they are all descended from me through my son, who by a freak genetic mutation came out as a cat.
