The Cat's Tail

Poor Memo. He is adored by Carter. Adored by him. Carter kisses him and hugs him and pets him and says "Momo" about 100 times a day. Everything revolves around "Momo". The dog's dish is "Momo's". A random cat litter box? "Momo's". The neighbor's cat? "Momo".

Apparently Memo is number one around here and would no doubt have more success than mommy at getting Carter to change his diaper or wipe his face.

But Memo has a tail and Carter pulls it. Hard. And then stops, signs "hurt" and goes back to pulling Memo's tail. Memo takes it and comes back for more. Sometimes we hear the scraping of cat's claws across the kitchen floor as poor "Momo" gets dragged around by his tail. One of us races over and says the Momo-mantra: Buddy, you have to be gentle. That hurts Memo. We are nice to our animals".

Carter repeats the mantra, sort of, by petting Momo nicely, giving him a kiss, grabbing his tail, tugging hard, letting go, signing "hurt", and then petting him again and saying "Nigh" (toddler-speak for "nice").

Sometimes we give Memo an extra spoonful of kibble as an apology.