Sam the Menace

For a personal, toilet-related victory, Sam was given two foam swords as a reward. This is a very big deal, since he's immersed himself in Disney's Peter Pan, where swordplay is central.

So perhaps it was inevitable for him to calmly ask yesterday, "Can I kill Alex?"

Alex is one of our cats (shown here), Zoe being the other. They get along fine with Sam by virtue of their willingness to leave the room when things look dicey. They have coexisted reasonably well, occasionally even venturing into positive territory when Sam manages to pet one of them in a non-violent fashion.

The answer, in case you are wondering, was No, you may not kill the cat. I mumbled something about stewardship of nature, but I don't that that sank in any more than the other things I say!

Tim