Marcy spends 12 minutes petting her cat and 1/3 of that time combing it. How many minutes does she spend with her cat in total? Let's think first. Chain of thought:
First find the time Marcy spends combing the cat: 12 minutes / 3 = 4 minutes. Then add that to the time spent petting the cat to find the total time she spends with it: 4 minutes + 12 minutes = 16 minutes.
Therefore, the answer is 16.