sorry, i hope you don't mind, but a few days i also remembered the story about the kitten and the coffee and looked it up. if you're curious, it is Spacetime for Springers by Fritz Lieber.

Omg, yes that is the story I was thinking of! Thank you so much, Arden! <3 I knew it had a strange name that I wouldn't remember in a million years, lol! I found the story here if anyone wants to read it. The formatting is a bit wonky in a few places, but it's totally readable. (For context: in the tags of this post I mentioned it reminded me of a short story about a kitten and coffee.)