do what I say

Zailey was looking at me the other day while I was laying on the couch. She looked cute, so I thought I would pick her up and have her lay with me. She was a little out of my reach, so I asked her to come.

She followed my ESP rather than my command. She barely took a step before leaping onto the couch. Luckily, I was able to catch her before she fell on my head.

I couldn't admonish her because she did exactly what I told her to do. She just hadn't done it the way I wanted her to do it. I should have said, "come closer".

My wife and I are having issues with being precise. I tend to use "whatchamacallit" way too much in my vocabulary. That isn't good for training a puppy, talking with my wife, nor in my writing.

Sometimes, writing something with a double meaning is neat. Usually it sets up a nerdy joke. But when it is an accident, readers are left confused. Definitely not what you want.

In some of my editing here lately, I found lots of passages that lacked clarity. I knew what was meant, but also knew that nobody in their right mind would see it that way. Luckily, all I had to do was describe my whatchamacallits sooner and with more detail. That fixed the passages.

Now if only I could fix Zailey's behavior...