North Dakota's senators are people too, and when things get rough on the floor; sometimes they need to know that someone cares, even if it's just a stuffed "non-partisan therapy" cat.

Whether it's voting down free school lunches for North Dakota kids, or voting for free lunches for themselves, you can bet there's a kitty waiting on someone's desk with a clever saying like "Give me liberty, or give me school lunch."

When Senator Jordan Kannianen welcomed his twelfth child into the world, the Senate added a basket of kittens.

The card included with the kittens read:

"I have enough milk now with some to spare. So, I had a litter and I know you care. Because you have a litter of your own, so I am sharing mine with you alone. The diaper tax should help you out."

The diaper tax refers to HB 1177 that exempts sales tax on diapers and passed the Senate last March.

The senators see the cat as a playful way to bring everyone together, seeing as how the cat is bipartisan.

"You never know who's going to get it next," said Sonja King a clerk working in the Senate chamber.

I'd suggest they try something like this at the national level, but you know someone--I'm not saying who--but someone would get offended and suddenly cats would be sexist, racist, and fascist.