Definitely a dog

This little post is about my two girls' first experience with kittens, as in just a few weeks old, still teeny-tiny kittens. We went to visit a friend of mine whose cat had had five kittens. They were finally old enough to be petted and such, but still really small. Maddy of course was all gung ho and picked one up immediately. I was a bit distracted with Katie and all the kittens running around, but I thought I saw her unceremoniously drop it onto the floor. Since I wasn't 100% sure, I didn't say anything, just watched her more closely. Sure enough, she picked up another one, and suddenly tossed it onto the floor. I realized that since these kittens were so young, their claws were doing that little pokey thing when you picked them up. Maddy would pick one up, get poked by their claws and throw it down. I took her to the side and explained the new "only holding kittens while seated and no tossing them" rules. Meanwhile my friend's daughters looked vastly relieved when they heard me say that we couldn't EVER have a cat since my husband is allergic. I'm sure they would have lost sleep if we'd taken one of their kittens home. Heck, I would have lost sleep, too.

Katie, on the other hand, was very gentle with the kittens and would mostly bend over and squeal at them as they played, earning her suprised little kitten expressions that probably meant, "Why are you screaming at me? What did I ever do to you?". She would occasionally touch one, but usually with only one finger. She could definitely do the cat thing. Alas, with Maddy's tendencies toward wild enthusiasm and playing rough, we will have to eventually get a dog. A very sturdy dog.