A brief history:

A week before my ninth birthday, I stood outside a pet shop window and fell in love with a calico kitten. Debbie came up behind me and basically said that she was mine if I wanted her. I wanted her. Nine year old girls in my day had a thing for cabbage patch kids, you know. That calico kitten became my doll. I wrapped her in blankets and pushed her around in strollers. I fed her water through a bottle.

That was over 15 years ago, and in the days and weeks and years that followed, that cat grew to be finicky about how she would accept water. Not from a bowl—what do you take her for that she would lower herself to such an act? Instead, she began taking her water from a slow drizzle of cold water in the bathtub. Now, granted, we all catered to her, never denying her...

Then came THE FALL...

...of 2004, that is. My father remodeled the bathroom, installing a new bathtub, floor tile, vanity, the works. He, being lord and master of that particular room, declared the cessation of all feline watering practices then and there. The cat in question, who will be referred to hereafter as Friskey, was then 14 years old. A 14-year habit—can you imagine the withdrawal?

A few weeks ago, my mother broke the sacred rule. As Dad snored in the other room, she bathed with Friskey as her bath time companion in the bathroom, and offered unto her a drizzle of water from the faucet. It was her first in over a year—Friskey's first drink, not my mother's first bath...just to clarify. I can write this here, because my father has no concept of the internet or that I publish silly things about him at regular intervals. However, if he had any clue of said incident, he would be spitting-nails-mad.

Friskey has began begging for tub-water constantly. She screeches in meows and my father scratches his head in confusion, muttering, "She hasn't done that in almost a year...why now?" Mom plays dumb....and then sneaks into the bathroom to quietly give her a fix. She herds me into her bedroom, bites her thumbnail and giggles as though she's just eaten the last fun size bag of M&Ms.