Mallory, you're the smartest witch of your age.

The broader point is not about getting a contract out of them, (because you know you would never get a contract out of them because they are lame) but rather that she put them in a position to 'shit or get off the pot'--in such a way that makes her untouchable, professional, above board, what have you. The minute she says "I need stability and you haven't been able to offer it', she's engaged with them too much, it's too personal. It crosses the boundary between work and friendship. Their only counter to that 'We are too stable. You just don't get it!" They don't need to know anything about her needs. By putting the responsibility to produce a real contract back on them, she is above reproach--because all she's asking for is something anyone starting a business should be willing to produce to show they're serious. She hasn't burned a bridge--even though she knows she's never going to work with them again, and she hasn't made it personal, even though she probably won't remain friends with them.

Is it passive aggressive? I suppose one could call it that. It's more like playing politics.

LW1, if these people can't give you specifics (and believe me, they can't), the best way to walk away without burning a bridge is to turn it back to them. Ask them to contact you when they have a contract drawn up, so that you and your lawyer can take a look at. "I'm so excited about the xyz business. I'd like my lawyer to take a look at the offer when the contracts are drawn up. When should I look for it in my inbox/mailbox?" If they say they don't know, you say 'Alright, let me know when you know.' If they say, 'we're friends here, we don't need anything so stodgy as a contract because we already know what we need you to do, say, 'I really wish I could work that way, but I just don't feel comfortable with that. I'm sorry we couldn't work it out.' Then wish them a happy whatever, and ring off cheerfully.

They will never send you a contract, because they're not serious. You may or may not have a friendship in the future, but you can say with confidence that you were friendly and professional with them, which in this instance is the most important thing. Keep those boundaries good and solid by being professional and polite.

Can he be played by Tom Hiddelston?

I have to assume Lady Bertram has failing kidneys.

The description of her constant exhaustion and inability to rouse herself from the couch reminds me of how I felt just before I went on dialysis (something they didn't have back then) and how much more energy I had after my kidney transplant (another thing they didn't have back then.)

You are a four legged mammal with an unusual gift for higher order thinking, which may or may not be permanent. Alternately, you are not a talking dog.

You are made of sapient pearwood, irritated to have just spent the past five minutes being underground for a century.

Thanks. And now I'm tearing up. Again.

Burrgrit. Millenium hand and shrimp.

These situations, relevant as they are to ourselves as a society, shine a much needed light on a heretofore unknown social disparity between the treatment of cats and dogs.See with your own eyes how much more dogs are integrated into mainstream society.

To take an abused dog away from a family, one must go through channels, obtain proper papers, offer remuneration, be polite, and make an effort not to upset the owners by engaging in a chatty subterfuge. Cats, and their rescuers are plainly subject to no such oversight. One is advised to merely take the cat. Pick it up off the street, as it were. With nary a kind word to the owner to soften the transition. No subterfuge, no shallow deceits. Just outright theft!

It's as if cats were somehow less important than dogs, or that an owner might be less attached to their feline pets than to their canine ones. Truly it appears that a woman, perhaps a lonely woman, perhaps a woman afflicted with an unfortunate parasite, is somehow second best to a family, no matter how dysfunctional that family may be. How is it that the family is more deserving of the web of kindly lies a rescuer will weave to release Bowser or Scout into their loving arms, than the poor unfortunate woman for whom her cats are the only thing tethering her to reality?

Just take the cat?! Truly, we cannot function as a society if this is let stand.

There's a show called Runway Moms, that I never fail to see as Runaway Moms. Especially when my kid was of preschool age.

And then I realize it says Runway Moms, and I m so disappointed.

No words for how brilliant this is, except for maybe EXCELLENT BRAIN CANDY.