Buddies

Socks (in front) and Callie have learned over the past couple of years to tolerate one another pretty nicely.  Callie especially likes to snuggle up to Socks when it's cold because Socks radiates heat like a good old fashioned stove (due to her weight and thick, fluffy fur, I suppose). Every once in awhile, Socks will get irritated with Callie, whose way of saying "hello" is to jump onto her back and bite her neck...doesn't go over well, understandably...  Callie has learned that in these situations, discretion is the better part of valor, and she prudently takes refuge under the Hepplewhite dresser because Socks is too fat to go under there and get 'er.

The point being that, despite differences and irritations, these two get along and live together.  I find it curious that, in situations of violence such as today's shooting in NYC, the inevitable comparison occurs and someone refers to someone else behaving like an "animal".  I think the far better description is to describe that person as behaving like a human.  Animals rarely kill each other for fun, or in anger.

And now the eternal argument will rage - gun control or gun freedom?  I say, who cares?  The real point is, "How do we stop people from getting to this point?"  And that leads me right back to the cats.  Tolerance.  We are all so ANGRY these days.  I was in JoAnn the other day and there was one cashier and one manager who had stepped over from Returns to open another register.  It was a Sunday evening near closing and there were two of us in line, waiting while a third woman checked out.  An expensively dressed, impeccably coiffed Ahwatukee Lady Who Lunches came in and approached the Returns desk, surveyed the situation, and immediately started tapping her foot and showing signs of irritation.  Mind you, by this point, the manager was getting ready to call one of us over and the third lady was done, so if the two of us had checked out uninterrupted it would have been the work of maybe three minutes.  However, the Expensive Person was by this point about to boil, so the manager left the register and went to wait on her.  Of course, I eavesdropped, figuring it must be a Very Important Matter...and was shocked to find that she had some mundane questions about products.  No return, no disappointing purchase.  She was just That Much More Important than the rest of us.

Bad behavior begets more bad behavior.  People who are pushed get to the point where they start pushing back.  All the laws in the world won't help change human behavior.  That has to come from within.  So, the next time you start getting irritated because something isn't going your way, STOP.  Think.  Change.

I will, too.