I’m at work and an old lady called to ask if we had cat Christmas socks but also kind of just to talk as old people sometimes do and I told her my name was Annie and she gasped and asked if I had time for a story (of course!) and told me oh about 18 years ago she went out for the day and came home with two cats and her husband joked she was turning into her mother who brought cats home all the time and wanted to know what these ones were named and she said the names will come in their own time and one morning she got up early and everyone was out and the dogs were in the backyard and she was getting out leftover pork chops for breakfast and one of the cats who was tiny and gray immediately started rubbing around her feet and screaming to try some. The cat was really too young to eat solids but it wanted some so badly that she bit off two pieces the size of a pencil eraser and held them out and the cat ate them up like it hadn't eaten in days (untrue! She fed it four times a day!). Her hand was all covered in pork chop grease and the kitten in it's enthusiasm bit right into that too, making four little punctures wounds, and she picked it up and said "that's enough there, Pork Chop Annie!" and so that was the cats name and it loved to eat pork chops the rest of it's long life. I told her I’d eat a pork chop soon in honor of the cat and she said “it’s all you’ll think about any time you do!” and, yeah, I will, I’ll think about the little gray cat who never weighed more than 6 pounds and loved pork chops and ice cubes, and how nice it was to listen to a story for awhile.
When old people have stories you should listen. Especially if you've heard the story before. It may mean something to you, but it almost always means a LOT to them. Plus someday fate willing you'll be that old person.
