After supper last night, Reid was asking Ken where the mamas of our kitties were. He explained that Clio had come from the farm that Mama lived on when she was a girl and that we got Leo and Mars from a pet store. I’m not sure how he explained us taking Clio but I did hear him explaining that the pet store helped people who wanted pets find pets that needed homes. The pet store that we went to acts as an outlet for the Ottawa Humane Society. Reid was interested in this aspect of our family history and had a few questions.

Then, she asked something about her being a baby when we got the cats. Ken explained that we’d got Clio, four years later got the Mars and Leo and four years later got her. Reid started to cry and say, “I want to be first.” She was so heartbroken. Ken was taken aback. What an odd thing to cry over! How does a daddy fix birth order? With a hug, of course. It was a wailing and thrashing sort of tragedy, though. I offered to join in a family hug to no great effect. Eventually I just carried Reid to my seat and started talking about something random and distracted her.

Note to self and others, Reid is sensitive to birth order discussions.