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 it's head on your knee and gazes at you as if you
were a Rembrandt painting. It bounds indoors with enthusiasm when you call
it.
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 doorsteps, 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."
Then you'll realize your cat is a dog again.
[Mother Shiptons Prophecy] [Poetry]
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