Christmas Cats

As I've mentioned before we've always had cats, which means we've always had cats at Christmas time.  Each of them has reacted differently to the holiday.  Some ignored it and some really  loved it.  The first to really love it was Louis, he would lay under the tree for hours stretched out on the packages.  He'd wander the house enjoying the smells and looking at the decorations.  One year he ate Christmas, literally, he ate some of the tinsel off the tree.  We found out when we saw it coming out the other end, it was gently removed.  Apparently tinsel is very dangerous for cats, it can cut up their insides.  We were lucky, he wasn't hurt but we stopped using tinsel.

Then one year  we gave Louis  Nysea, a large, furry, female cat  for Christmas.  We thought, that though he was neutered, he'd like her.  Well he spent Christmas in the sink in the spare bathroom refusing to come out or talk to anyone.  This was after he'd tried to annihilate Nysea, turned out that as much as Louis loved Christmas he hated female cats more.

Then there was Bear who seemed to dislike the smell of Christmas or at least he saw it as his mission to obliterate its smell by p****g under the tree.  We tried everything to stop him, the cat sprays that are guaranteed  to keep cats away, moth balls an even stronger smell and aluminium foil,  a sound and texture that cats are supposed to hate.  He totally ignored all of these things and when the mood was upon him he p**d.  So we learned to put everything in boxes or bags so he couldn't hurt them.

Fergie  our furiously,  furry orange cat climbed the tree, shot straight up it,  but of course the tree was tied up because we'd learned from other cats that was necessary.

Now we have Miss Kitty and she too loves Christmas.  The first year we had her she brought her friend Tail out and they both lay in front of the tree staring at all the lights.  I don't put glass ornaments on the tree just resin ones and I don't hang anything too low, but knock on wood she's been wonderful.  She naps under it in the afternoon, that's when she's not in the closets going through Christmas presents or upstairs helping me wrap them. Sometimes she spends her night there smiling a little cat smile like she knows something very special.

Our daughter April can't believe it, she says her cat (the evil Renji) would have been up the tree, taken all the ornaments off and used them to escalate the cat wars in her apartment.

I guess we're just lucky!