Sugar and Stella have discerning tastes.

I can’t decide if this is sick or brilliant but I just bought Stella a gorgeous book about a cat with a feeding aversion.

Sort of.

The New York Times gave this really interesting, charming children’s book a big thumbs up, and the subject matter was just so weirdly perfect that I just had to get it. A boy finds an adorable stray cat, and they really get along, so he takes her home and names her Sugar. He sees that Sugar is hungry, so he offers her the last slice of his chocolate cake. He offers it to her because he loves chocolate cake. It’s delicious, so who wouldn’t love it, right? Well, “Sugar would not eat it.” Times goes by. The concerned boy gets more and more insistent that the cat eat the cake. The cat keeps refusing and refusing and refusing to eat it.

Finally, after consulting with friends and neighbors for their ideas on how to get the cat to eat, the boy is SCREAMS at the cat (something along the lines of), “WHY WON’T YOU EAT?” I did that to Stella once, I’m sorry to say.

I won’t give away the conclusion except to say that it couldn’t be more appropriate and smart and sweet. The parallels to me and Stells, in regards to her feeding issues, are undeniable. I read this book to her immediately upon unzipping the Amazon-branded cardboard packaging, and we both loved it. She kept pointing at the cat and smiling. I had a big grin, too, because Stella and I had the same happy ending.