What's that smell?!

I singed our cat's tail today. What an awful pet owner I am!

Ayse was alone at home all day today, so when I arrived home from work, she was especially needy for my attention. Often when I make dinner in the kitchen after work, I bring in our bar stool and set her on it (to keep her off the counters which are forbidden for her). So as I was pouring the ingredients for rice into a pot, she was rubbing her head all over the pot and my hands. Cute, right? Of course. A few minutes later, I turned on the burner and noticed that she was sitting sweetly on the bar stool watching me at the sink -- no problem. Of course, that's when I made my mistake; I turned my back. A few seconds later, our kitchen is full of the awful smell of burnt hair, and Ayse is looking confusingly at the smoke rising above her tail which is lying on the side of the burner!

Poor kitty! I don't think she's hurt, but her tail sure looks funny now (and smells atrocious)! For the first five minutes, she was walking around holding her tail close to her body. Now I think she's mostly forgotten other than when she starts to clean her tail and notices the crisp charred hair.

Maybe I'm not ready to be a parent quite yet.