Cat cold

There is nothing quite like a baby when it comes to attracting stranger attention out in public. I'm always perplexed by the people who think it is perfectly fine to touch a stranger's baby in the grocery store. (Actually, what's worse is the occasional person who will SEE the sleeping baby and then speak in a loud voice something clever, like, "OH! SOMEBODY'S SLEEPY!!" Yes, this has happened more than once.)

Elaine has a cold. I would blame one of these recent stranger touchings, but in all likelihood it was probably from her shoving a shared baby toy into her mouth on Thursday.

Today, Elaine accompanied me to Walgreens to pick up a prescription. A woman in her 50s observed that Elaine had a cold. She then earnestly told me her cat also has a cold right now. But what's more difficult about a cat having an upper respiratory ailment (versus a baby) is that you can't teach a cat how to blow their nose, she explains. She tells it to me in such a way that I wonder perhaps she has actually attempted to teach her cat how to blow it's nose, giving up only after hours of snotty struggles.

I decide not to suggest to her that 7 month old babies don't know how to blow their noses either, fearful that she may offer to teach Elaine right there like I imagine she tried to teach her cat. Instead I give an understanding smile and nod and move on to the register.