Maple Syrup: a Menace in Disguise

I'd like to provide an important household update.

Maple Syrup is now approximately sixteen weeks old.

Unfortunately, she has recently discovered the kitchen counters.

This development has been met with great enthusiasm on her part and considerably less enthusiasm on ours.

Every day seems to bring a new discovery. A new forbidden location. A new object that absolutely must be investigated. A new opportunity to test whether gravity still works.

For those unfamiliar with Maple, she is our tortie kitten and a firm believer that all household rules are merely suggestions.

She also appears to believe that every horizontal surface belongs to her.

As first-time kitten owners, we've learned many valuable lessons over the past few months. Most of them involve asking questions like:

• How did you get up there?

• What is in your mouth?

• Please stop eating that.

• Why are you like this?

Despite her ongoing campaign of chaos, she's become an indispensable writing companion.

Many of my writing sessions now include a brief interruption to remove a kitten from somewhere she shouldn't be, retrieve a stolen pen, or explain why manuscripts are not edible.

So if future updates seem delayed, please know that I'm doing my best.

Maple, meanwhile, has declared war on productivity and appears to be winning.