Alice and Byron

See if you can guess from this picture how the cat feels about the baby.

It is partially the cat's fault. He insists on cuddling up to Alice, not for affection, but so that she will pull on him and he will get my attention when I scream "Get away from the baby!"

It is partially my fault for being so angry at the cat all day for pulling this stunt. The most he gets from me most days is an angry glare or resentful game of "catch the string".

It is not really Alice's fault as she is a blameless infant, and has refrained from pulling his tail 7 times out of 10 (good track record for an 8 month old baby). However, there are times when his puffy tail is too much to ignore and she feels the need to grab him when Mommy is looking the other way.

So Byron spends much of his day enjoying the upstairs rooms of our house so that I don't murder him. In fact for Lent I have resolved to keep my temper around the cat. This sounds like a small promise but he makes me insane these days and I don't want Alice to pick up my bad habit of swearing at small animals. Also, I consider this good practice for her terrible twos.

To be fair I should relate that when I bring Alice home asleep in her carseat I am greeted by a silent cat who lets the baby nap in peace while I grab some lunch from the kitchen. A dog would never grant me this small favor. Good kitty...I guess.