It’s been announced that yet another pet food recall is happening. Mars Petcare is recalling pet food due to a possible salmonella contamination. Brands affected include Country Acres, Retriever, Doggy Bag, Members Mark, Natural, Ol’ Roy, Special Kitty, Paws & Claws, Pedigree, Wegman’s, Pet Pride, PMI Nutrition and Red Flannel.

Yesterday, I saw a woman walking down the street carrying a cat, and eating a bag of chips. Of course, upon seeing a cute cat, I let out an involuntary “Awww!” The woman smiled, and said to me, “He likes being outside with me.” I told her, “What a good cat. My cats would never do that!”  “He is good,” she agreed. I told my husband about this sighting, and naturally, I could not resist the opportunity to make a bad pun… so I ended up commenting on this encounter as being “all cat and a bag of chips.”

I think Thurston has developed a Pavlovian response to the smell of coffee. Often, when I drink my coffee, Thurst will hop on my lap and sit there contentedly while I sip my drink. Now, as soon as he smells coffee, his nose twitches and he runs over to me immediately, ready to jump into my lap. I think I’ve inadvertently conditioned him to think coffee = lap. I’ve gotten pretty good at balancing a cup of coffee in one hand while petting a large, needy tabby cat with the other hand. Well, when I was a child my main goals in life were to drink coffee (check!), have a cat (check! check! Two cats), and live in New York City (check!) You could either say I’ve accomplished all of my life’s goals, or I had really low ambitions.