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.