My cat thinks he is a Belgian driver

For those of you who have never driven in Brussels Belgium, let me tell you a few stories about my cat.

Each morning when I go upstairs to wake up my daughter, he races from wherever he is, up the stairs (passing me on the way), and to her bedroom door. One time I was about a quarter of the way up before he passed me, but he passed me just the same. That is the basic philosophy for driving here. If I can get ahead of just one more car then I win.

Another strange habit of his is to not walk in a straight line. I can be sitting on my bed with him right next to me, on the edge. If he wants to leave the room he just doesn't jump down to the floor and run out. He will circle around behind me, go across the bedside table, then jump to the floor and leave. That is the second philosophy of driving in Belgium. You cannot drive anywhere directly or in a straight line. This happens all the time since roads are so narrow and people park on the side of the road. You can almost compare it to slalom skiing on some streets. Maybe my cat is training for the 2010 Olympics.

The last habit is when he is going somewhere and I happen to be walking behind him. He may stop for no reason at all. I try to go around him and he changes direction into my path and I almost step on him. Rinse, Lather, Repeat. This brings me to to the last philosophy of driving in Belgium. I own every inch of the road.

For all of you in the states, I hope you appreciate your wide, SUV accommodating streets, it could be worse....much worse.