This is what a grey tabby kitten looks like.

I think it's pretty cute. And a full-grown grey tabby can be downright gorgeous.

Not for the people who came over last night wanting to adopt kittens.

Immediately.

So much so that, even though we'd ask them to come on the weekend, they barged into our home on a work night. A mother and her 20-something daughter, who'd been telling us how much her mother loved cats and used to bring kittens home in her schoolbag as a schoolgirl. The first thing I noticed is that the older woman doesn't seem to like cats very much. She shrinks away from them with abrupt, jerky motions. When one of our cats approaches her curiously, she instinctively begins to aim a kick at it before stopping herself.

Anyway, we bring them two of the little grey kittens we have at home. The mother's face falls. The daughter plays with them, holds one out to her mother who shrinks away from it. 'Oh, these are ordinary grey kittens...we want a brown and white, or a black or white or a white one...' the woman says. We go to put the kittens back and we hear her going on about the 'colour' of the kittens and how unappealing it is. She calls up someone on her cellphone and loudly declaims in Malyalam how unappealing these 'ash colour' kittens are. You're no beauty yourself, I think to myself.

These people go on and on about how they want kittens of some other colour, as if our shop is a feline department store. I retreat to the computer room to simmer gently while Yasmine politely sends them away with false assurances that we'll call them if we get other kittens. We'll never call them.