Yesterday...

We were at the school (again) and Ana and Evangeline were talking to Evangeline's teacher. I had mentioned that I have, in the past, put mustard oil on the pencils to keep Ana from chewing them (not, as I've explained to Ana, because I'm mad at her or to punish her, but because it really is a bad habit she should move out of ASAP) and Evangeline's teacher said that sometimes, when Evangeline is coloring, she CHEWS on her CRAYONS.

Ew!

Ana: Oh, I know about that. She does it all the time, and when we're asleep, you know what? She sucks my thumb.
Evangeline: No!
Ana: Yes! Suck your own thumb!

I'll note that I don't think I've seen Evangeline suck her thumb, even when she's napping, so I don't know if that's true or not. Once when she got a cut on her thumb and we had no bandaids I told her to pop it in her mouth for a second while I ran down to get from my floor, and she told me in no uncertain terms that she thought that was crazy.

I have (another) cat problem.

There's this real sweetie that has started hanging out on our porch. White and black splotches all over, and very friendly and people-oriented. (Also, he thinks he's welcome in my house. He's not, but outdoor cats don't often try.)

He'll gladly come up and sit on a lap, nuzzle a face, get scratched behind the ears, purr... a doll. I suspect he has no current home (he's not the cleanest of cats right now), and I intend to ask around to see if I can confirm that fact. (This is no brown-and-gray kitty. If he's claimed somebody, they know him.)

If he doesn't have a family, I'd like to see about finding him one. He's ridiculously friendly and cute, it'd be easy to get this guy off the streets. (I'm tempted myself, but I still can't have a cat right now.)

I say it'd be easy except there's one glaring problem (mind, I'm making problems that don't exist, I still don't even know if he doesn't have people, but let's work with this): He has no manners. He comes up, he snuggles, and all the time his tail goes twitch-twitch-twitch and then he turns around and does that half-bite you get from cats with no manners. And then he pops back in your lap and you forget that you're ignoring him.

Here we have this friendly, cute, distinctive cat. We still have a rodent epidemic in this city, it'd be so easy to get him inside, nice and safe... and he nips at people.

So I'm really annoyed at this. I suspect the problem is less "love bites" and more "gets overstimulated easily" - he doesn't do this (and that tail calms down) if you pet him firmly and slowly, but if you cover him with lighter, less complete pats....

If I do confirm that he's without a home, I'll look around for people who are willing to take up a challenge. He's not an aloof cat who sometimes bites, you can ignore those because they'll ignore you and hide most of the time. No, he's a *friendly* cat who sometimes bites. Pain in the butt.

I'm also annoyed that I just got *rid* of a cat and this one literally popped up on my doorstep right after. WTF? I'm not looking for cats right now!