CHILDREN ARE LIKE....

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.

 Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20060614052354/http://momsplace.50megs.com/children.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20030811001627/http://www.heartfeltgreets.com/bestfriendspup.html