re: the kittens! (~ or maybe even +), gender, personal cat lore
@monsterblue The first time I met Spike, I reached out to pet him. Now, this was foolish and impudent of me to start with. Bookstore cats are the most jaded creatures on the face of the earth, pettings are an inflated and virtually worthless currency to them, and I was lucky to get away without blood being shed.
But Spike, he just looks straight at me. And I could swear I see him shake his head "no" a little. And he just reaches out with both paws, claws totally retracted, and just HOLDS me by the wrist and STARES until I get the message and back off. And then he goes straight back to sleep.
I felt I had learned something very important about interpersonal relationships from Spike that day.
