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A black cat with flour on its nose sits by a mixing bowl while an elderly Black woman shapes cookies on a baking sheet. 27 / 36

Grandma Odessa Turned Her Back on the Cookie Dough for One Second

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Evidence doesn't get much clearer than this. Licorice sits front and center on the kitchen counter, a generous dusting of white flour across his nose and whiskers, gazing upward with innocent golden eyes as though he has no idea how it got there. Just behind him, Grandma Odessa works at the counter in a canvas apron over her green sweater, glasses on, pressing rounds of dough onto a baking board. A mixing bowl of crumbly batter sits right next to the cat, flour drifts across the dark countertop, and a crumpled cloth lies nearby like a clue left at the scene.

A little flour on the nose won't hurt a cat, but baking days call for some caution. Raw cookie dough often contains raw eggs, and many cookie recipes include ingredients that are dangerous for pets, such as chocolate, raisins, macadamia nuts, or certain sugar-free sweeteners. Yeast doughs are an extra risk because they can expand in the stomach. The safest plan is keeping cats off counters while you bake, or closing them out of the kitchen until everything's put away. Hot ovens, stovetops, and cooling racks are tempting perches too, so supervision matters until the kitchen is cool and clean.

Licorice will deny everything, of course. Odessa seems to have already forgiven him, flour and all. A batch of cookies made with a little extra fur and a lot of love is still a batch worth sharing, just not with the cat.

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