Behavioral Modifications

One of the girls at work had a few of us over for a holiday lunch yesterday.

Trying to stay paleo is difficult and I typically try to avoid situations in which I do not know what food will be served. But there are some dynamics at work that really required me to attend this particular lunch.

So I did.

It was a mix of former and current employees of the City and it turned out to be fun.

However...

At some point, and I'm not quite sure how, we go on the topic of pets. Now, I don't currently have a pet, but I used to have Ed-dog and I loved him a lot, so I thought I could hang in the convo. 

I was so wrong.

They started talking about cats. And I'll be honest - that's where you lose me.

So one of the women was talking about her new male cat and how she hopes he doesn't start spraying. And something about how they learn that from other cats so she thinks she is safe...blah, blah, blah.

Then one of the other women starts talking about her three cats. Two females, one male - all full-siblings. 

 I missed the part of the story where she told us how long she had them. But what I did hear was that the male randomly started peeing on things in her house.

So what does the logical person do in this situation?

Obviously takes the cat to the vet.

And the vet says that the problem is that the male cat wants to be in charge, but one of the females is in charge, so he is establishing his dominance by peeing on things.

The solution for this issue:

(And I quote,) "We have started using some behavioral modifications. We hold the male on our laps and pet him and love him and if the female cat comes up, we tell her 'no!'"

Seriously, I don't know how I did not start laughing hysterically right there at the table. More importantly, I hope that my facial expressions didn't give me away.

Because when I called Diddy immediately after pulling out of the driveway to tell him the story and he couldn't even understand what I was saying because I was laughing so hard.