Just a quick entry.

This morning, minutes after waking up, Makoto saw two of his favorite things at once–grandma (baba) and cat (neko)–and decided to put the two together saying, 「猫ばば」 (neko baba)

猫糞 neko baba [lit. cat poop] is slang for embezzlement, pocketing, or just plain stealing. It basically means to pocket something found that is not yours and then use it as if it were yours.

Cat is ‘neko‘ of course, but the 糞, usually pronounced fun, uses the baby-talk ‘baba‘ sound.

But why ‘cat poop’?

Cats tend to hide their poop.  Just as a thief would find someone’s wallet and quietly pocket it, a cat kicks sand over his poop to hide it.

For more on this marvelous piece of slang, see our How to Wow pages.