German Conversation, Plus a German Cat

Today I enjoyed a wonderful conversation, in German, with a longtime family friend. She has a daughter my age, with whom I used to play when I was a kid.

Pancho the German Cat

She (the friend, I mean; not the daughter) remembers my being fluent in German back when I was four. It was exciting to have someone outside my family confirm my childhood bilingualism.

Basically I am jealous of my childhood self for being fluent in a second language!

Now, this is totally irrelevant to language, but here at left is Pancho. Despite his name, he is an authentic German cat residing in Göttingen. He is also quite the charmer and has surprising talents.

Although he may look fat and lazy in this photo, he opens fully closed doors. He will leap straight up in the air, grab a door handle, and bring his body weight down on the handle to pop the door open. I have never seen anything like it.

A clever German cat, that Pancho!