When your cat is too cute to chastise?

I refer, of course, to our baby Athena, nicknamed "Teener."

She should be close to a year old now, but she's only about 3/4 size for a normal female adult. We think she's a runt, so she's just going to be a very small cat. She's proportional, and very muscular, but little. She also has ENORMOUS golden eyes, round and bright like coins. They take up at least half of her face, and fringed with looong sandy lashes that she bat, bat, bats. Tiny ears. Her lips are very full and pink for a cat's, and always just slightly parted. Result: her expression is sweetly inquisitive and innocent at all times. She also has the tiniest soprano mew you ever heard. More like the faint chirp of a baby bird.

Yup. You got it. The fix is in: she's gonna be a kitten forever. Small in size with infantile features. Perpetually drop dead kewt.

Her personality doesn't help things. In the six months we've had her, we've never had a "cross word" from her. Not a tooth, not a claw. Not even a hiss. She is very shy and skittish. Except when she crawls up on your chest and purrs and snuggles with you.

So, what to do when she's naughty, then? Because she is. Of course she is. She's the queen of the trashcan knockdown, for one. Scratches the carpets. Eats her sister's food. Chomps on any plastic wrap she can find. And the latest: she jumps up on the dining room table (no-no No. 1) and naps in our decorative ceramic bowl (no-no No. 2). But I have to admit, this last one is just the cutest thing. Who wouldn't melt to see a tiny marmalade tabby curled up in a little ceramic dish? Why it's a bowlful of cuddles, just for you. Even her crimes are adorable!

I'm doomed, aren't I? I'll never get her to behave, will I? It's a good thing she isn't the hell-on-wheels that Thor is!