Sleeping together is a euphemism for people, but tantamount to marriage with cats.

Piercy’s line plays on the human euphemism “sleeping together,” which often coyly refers to sex or cohabitation without naming it. With cats, she jokes, the phrase becomes literal—and far more binding: once a cat shares your bed, it behaves as if a permanent domestic bond has been formed. The humor rests on the mismatch between human language (which can soften or obscure commitment) and animal behavior (which treats shared warmth and routine as real attachment). Implicitly, the quote also comments on intimacy as habit and caretaking: the everyday act of making space for another body at night can create a relationship that feels, in practice, like marriage.