Gender and Species Issues

Today at the library I picked up a DVD of The Aristocats for Jarrah, as I remembered loving it when I was a kid and she's exhausted most of the Pixar and Elmo options already. I put it on when we got home from school and went about my business. I was drinking my coffee and perusing Faulkner/catching up on US Weekly when I heard:

Jarrah: Mom? The dog is nice, right?

Sam: Mmmmm. Very nice. What dog?

Jarrah: The orange one. He's a dog, right?

Sam: No, he's an O'Malley cat. I mean, an alley cat.

Jarrah: But he's a dog.

Sam: No, he's a cat.

Jarrah: (pause) And he could be the dad, right?

Sam: Erm, right. He could be the dad.

Jarrah: Because he's a boy.

Sam: Yes, he's a boy.

Jarrah: So he could turn out to be the dad. Because dads are boys, right?

Sam: Um, yeah. Dads are generally boys.

Jarrah: But why isn't he a dog?

Sam: I don't know, sweetie. Because he's a cat.