SUSAN LOESCH

CATS IN THE STACKS

What IS it about a cat’s tail that makes it such an object of fascination for my very youngest students?  When they visit with Alex they will hold his tail way faster than they will feel his whiskers or even begin to pet him.

My kindergartners were here for a story hour and a visit with Alex last week, and sure ‘nuf when he sat down with them it was all hands on the tail! I remember Jordan, while she was in preschool, meeting Footsie for the first time, immediately grabbing his  tail and gazing at it like it was magic.  She is a grown-up kindergartner this year and now Alex’s tail amazes her.

One of her classmates,  after spending lots of time admiring Alex’s tail, went on to pet him and said to me, “I feel his bones. Why do you feel bones on the outside of his body?” I pointed out how he could feel the bones in his wrist and fingers and spine and we decided that it was much the same as feeling Alex’s bones.

This morning I asked my all-knowing second graders why they thought the little kids were so interested in Alex’s tail.

The best they could come up with was “because it is long.”

They are too grown up, I guess, to remember how much they liked to hold kitty tails when they were little.

This afternoon I had the kindergarten again – and asked them the question.

They all shouted out at the same time, “Because it’s soft!”

Well, there you have it. How could I not have known!