Animal crossing

In the US, if you say someone is an ass you are saying they are a jerk; if you say they are a fox they are cute; and someone who is a chicken is afraid. For Carol and I these associations are well formed after fifty-some years of practice but they don't help us much here. Here, if you call someone a jackass you are saying they dumb but not boorish; someone who is foxy is called a cat; and someone who is a chicken is sexually promiscuous. We have to rearrange our animal metaphors because right now we are like fish out of water. I can't go around calling Carol my little chickadee because she isn't a high heeled clod hopper. And we can't get offended if we get called rats because it just means we have become regulars. We are working on it but moving at snail's pace like a couple of of old dogs trying to learn new tricks.