A childhood belief about swearing

my sisters and i invented an imagination game called the alley cat restaurant, some cross between a disney movie and a soap opera. my youngest sister, who always had to be the boy, played thomas o'malley (a la aristocats). there was some pretended romantic triangle and i said, "Tom doesn't love you. he's after one prime pussy." my mom came running in to the room screaming, "what did you say??" and i started yelling "pussy cat! pussy cat!" i didnt really know what i had said, i wa only about 9, but i got the fact that it wasnt something my mom wanted to hear coming out of my mouth.