Katya Graymalkin here. I’ve decided to introduce myself every time I post, since one of Mom’s friends, Cairn Rodrigues of the Askew Questions, thought I was Mom posting about HER Mom. Cairn said this:

I don’t religiously read Marian Allen‘s Caturday posts. Until recently, I found them to be very confusing. The ones I read always left me with a feeling that Marian has a very passive-aggressive relationship with her mother. That doesn’t really jibe with what I know of Marian.

So Caturday means that she’s writing in the perspective OF HER CAT. Because I needed that spelled out in big letters. Marian has a passive-aggressive relationship with HER CAT. Which totally jibes with everyone who owns a cat.

I don’t know what this “passive-aggressive” thing is she’s talking about. Mom and I are crazy about each other. We have our issues, but what Mom-and-kitty partnership doesn’t?

This morning, for instance. Anybody who knows my Mom knows that she has a bladder the size of a peanut. So it isn’t surprising that the flushy bit of her watery litterbox wears out pretty frequently. Last night, the ring that holds the plug’s chain onto the flushy bit’s arm rusted through and fell off, so Mom had to take the top off the tank and pull the chain by hand.

So Charlie says, “I’ll put in a new unit.”

I don’t know how much that would cost, but it would probably buy a bag of cat food or a catnip toy, so I thought real fast and said, “Mom, why don’t you use a plastic twist-tie to connect the chain to the arm thing?”

So she did, and it works.

Now, could somebody explain to me why Mom says I should wear a big heavy belt full of tools that pull my kitten britches down so my tail shows? My tail already shows!

Moms are so weird.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR CATS: Something happens in the night and you help with it.

MA