Kids are Dogs, Teens are Cats
Author Unknown

I just realized that while children are dogs ... loyal and affectionate ... teenagers are cats.

It's so easy to be a dog owner. You feed it, train it, boss it around. It puts its head on your knee and gazes at you as if you were a Rembrandt painting. It bounds indoors with enthusiasm when you call

Then around age 13, your adoring little puppy turns into a big old cat. When you tell it to come inside, it looks amazed, as if wondering who died and made you emperor. Instead of dogging your doorstep, it disappears. You won't see it again until it gets hungry ... then it pauses on its sprint through the kitchen long enough to turn its nose up at whatever you're serving. When you reach out to ruffle its head, in that old affectionate gesture, it twists away from you then gives you a blank stare, as if trying to remember where it has seen you before.


You, not realizing that the dog is now a cat, think something must be desperately wrong with it. It seems so antisocial, so distant, sort of depressed. It won't go on family outings. Since you're the one who raised it, taught it to fetch and stay and sit on command, you assume that you did something wrong. Flooded with guilt and fear, you redouble your efforts to make your pet behave.

Only now you're dealing with a cat, so everything that worked before now produces the opposite of the desired result. Call it and it runs away. Tell it to sit and it jumps on the counter. The more you go toward it, wringing your hands, the more it moves away.

Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you can learn to behave like a cat owner. Put a dish of food near the door and let it come to you. But remember that a cat needs your help and your affection too. Sit still and it will come, seeking that warm, comforting lap it has not entirely forgotten. Be there to open the door for it.

One day your grown-up child will walk into the kitchen, give you a big kiss and say, "You've been on your feet all day. Let me get those dishes for you."
dog wagging tail - 2cool ani.gif (3838 bytes) Then you'll realize your cat is a dog again.

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here's another analogy:

Teenagers are like CATS:
** Neither teenagers nor cats turn their heads when you call them by name.
** No matter what you do for them, it is not enough. Indeed, all humane
efforts are barely adequate to compensate for the privilege of waiting on
them hand and foot.
** You rarely see a cat walking outside of the house with an adult human
being, and it can be safely said that no teenager in his or her right mind
wants to be seen in public with his or her parents.
** Even if you tell jokes as well as Jay Leno, neither your cat nor your
teen will ever crack a smile.
** No cat or teenager shares you taste in music.
** Cats and teenagers can lie on the living-room sofa for hours on end
without moving, barely breathing.
** Cats have nine lives. Teenagers carry on as if they did.
** Cats and teenagers yawn in exactly the same manner, communicating that
ultimate human ecstasy -- a sense of complete and utter boredom.
** Cats and teenagers do not improve anyone's furniture.
** Cats that are free to roam outside sometimes have been known to return in
the middle of the night to deposit a dead animal in your bedroom. Teenagers
are not above that sort of behavior.

Thus, if you must raise teenagers, the best sources of advice are not other
parents, but veterinarians. It is also a good idea to keep a guidebook on
cats at hand at all times. And remember, above all else, put out the food
and do not make any sudden moves in their direction. When they make up their
minds, they will finally come to you for some affection and comfort, and it
will be a triumphant moment for all concerned.

SORRY TO ALL YOU CAT LOVERS (oh yeah and Norbert too )

I am happy to say that I have two dogs back (21 and 19 1/2) thank goodness and one cat on the cusp (18). It does get better.

yours in recovery,
Maria123