My sister Edie bought Maisie a new stuffed cat. We named it “Dibble”, after a similar REAL cat my grandparents had when I was a tiny girl.

She dragged the cat to her toybox and proceeded to introduce it to all her dolls and other stuffies.

When she brought out her favorite tiny stuffed owl – being the evil mommy that I am – I took the cat and pounced on the owl, pretending that the cat was eating the bird.

Maisie looked at the scene in horror for a few moments, then started to cry.  She snatched the cat out of my hand and spanked it on it’s head, saying “NO, NO!!! BAD! BAD!!”

Where did she get that?! She’s never had a spanking herself!!

It reminded me of when we’d catch our cats on the farm with live birds and tried to get them to drop them.