Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for December 01, 2023

NOT ON MY WATCH! WE MAY DOZE BUT NEVER CLOSE! Says Ora Zella. A small cat that is truly Open 24/7.~With appologies to the fabulous, yet divey, Anchor Grill.

Decorate the tree, or un-decorate the tree?

Is there a time out room for small helpers?

Right now she’s helping put it up. When you’re asleep she’ll take the lead in bringing it down…

That’s tortietude.

Our furkids don’t bother the tree now. We hope. Achilles doesn’t. Bear hasn’t been in the library where we put the tree each year. We’ll see about Monroe this year.

A Christmas tree is basically a giant cat tree covered in dozens – nay, hundreds! – of cat toys. We humans can only blame ourselves for not knowing the truth.

It is amazing how often the Woman forgets she has cats.

Is this the first Christmas with Iggy and Ora Zella?

Tree decoration? Already? It just 1st of December.

Pointy little “smol cat” tail — SQUEEE !!! Ultimate cuteness !!!

Without feline assistance or supervision, human endeavours are doomed.

Silly Woman, no cat will ever take a break from helping! It’s what they do best!

Where’s the Man? Shouldn’t he be helping with the tree?

Any mother would be so happy if they had a cat helping around the house! Unfortunately, that is not real life :(

I thought Lupin made the “Breaking Cat News”?

At almost 19, Shorty is too old to jump on anything higher than about 18 inches so she sat next to me and watched me trim the tree this year. Right next to me. Right under foot next to me. Like every time I turned around, there she was next to me so I’d trip over her. And Beau was on the other side, sniffing all the ornaments and sliming them with his wet nose. It took me twice as long to trim it this year.

Time to flip your calendars and see a picture of what Lupin does best. (And it has toe beans!)

If this works, you’ll enjoy it.

https://youtubeCom/shorts/plFKqABv4Ec?

Replace the capital C with “.c”.

Ora Zella is so helpful! Baking, decorating, whatever the woman wants to do…

Garland? Seriously? With that many cats in the house? Especially Lupin and OZ!

Sean and I put up my decorations yesterday. Smudge and Mouse cast a jaundiced eye on the proceedings and proceeded to nap. Imp and Thor eyed everything speculatively and were told (sternly) to forget about it. So far, they’ve been pretty good.

OT: I love having Sean living with me, but I will be so happy when he and his wife Ashleigh and the babies have a place of their own near his job here in Barrie.

My dearly departed, Tigger, was always so helpful! She would point out certain ornaments that needed to be moved, and always tested the tree’s, stability!

Aw, the Woman understands! They are just trying to help.

Cooper at 16, no longer has interest in the Christmas tree. Thankfully I have some lovely photos of him sleeping under it, and sitting in the window behind it with the snow behind and the lights reflecting. Fractal, 6, seems to be a perpetual kitten. He helps fluff the branches and undecorates on a daily basis. When finished, he falls asleep under the tree.

Jefferson Starship: Count on Me

Chasing the garland, I’m there with you

Knocking down balls, on the floor I’ll be kicking them too!

Beautiful tree, I’ll undecorate

Climbing the branches and hiding therein is what I’ll do!

…….

You can count on me!

Count on my help!

Count on me!

Count on my help!

To trim all through!

Years ago my parents (now long-deceased) had a wee black cat named Rerun. The only thing she ever did to their Christmas tree was knock one decoration off. Every night. The same ornament. It would be lying under the tree every morning. Mom finally hung it on a low branch so Rerun could reach it more easily. Who knows what goes on in their little brains?!

Big eyes, tiny tail!

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Tabath-Isis: We’re here at the Artisans’ studio to interview Tillie, Sophie, Arachna, and Adobe Style on their latest project. Tillie, what are your current plans?

Maat-Tilda: It’s time to decorate the palace for the Yule Season. With some new jewels from Mag-Lor and his family, we have some extra special projects in mind.

Arachna: I’m enjoying spinning the cotton bolls Trevor-Hotep developed, Tabs. A spider loves to spin, but it’s also nice to give my spinnerets a rest.

Tabs: Is there a reason the balls of cotton are all lined up in rows?

Ari: I think Iggy’s been here. Iggy?

Iggy Shipwright: Hello. I was just having a bit of fun.

Soph: I could do with having some of these jewels sorted out. I think you’re just the right cat for the job.

Iggy: You’ve got it.

Adobe Style: I just hope Ora Z isn’t around to help at the moment.

Tillie: Don’t worry. She’s practicing with her band, Mallets Towards None.

Tabs: When you have a moment, I think Thomios has cheese scones ready for tea.

Adobes: Oh, great! The Royal Procurers must be back from their seminar at Punn State!

Samson always wanted to help put the tree up. He wasn’t interested in the decorating part, just the act of putting the artificial tree together. He would scale the pole in the middle and pop out of whatever section I was working on with a loud cry of “Samon!” (He always sounded like he was announcing himself when he meowed.) Daddy made the grave mistake of laughing the first time he did it as a kitten, so it ended up being his personal holiday tradition.

O.T. covid booster

OMC – how did I miss Ora Zella rear toe beans?

Let her support you, Woman. What’s the worst that could happe- Oh… right. Forget I asked.

Wait—OZ and Iggy have already been around a whole year!!! How did that happen??!!!

Helper cat is helping.

Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be getting the “help” as well. I may just skip the garland. OH, before I forget, I had seen a picture of someone that had literally tied their artificial tree to two cinder blocks. I’m going to do that!

Years ago I had a two story tall tree in a vaulted living room every year. I learned the hard way to attach it to the wall after the first night the cats knocked it over and filled up the whole room with tree,

Panel 2: Look at the SIZE…

…of those EYES!

The only times our tree ever got knocked over were on Christmas Eve. Mom always had open house for her family. (Counting the in laws, that meant 12 aunts, 12 uncles, and 17 nieces and nephews.) Not everybody stopped by every year, but considering the house is slightly under 700 square feet, things got crowded. One year a tipsy uncle knocked the tree down. Another year, a cousin attempting to turn a cartwheel in the living room knocked it down. The cats would occasionally bring down an ornament or two, so the bottom rows of branches had wooden or knitted/crocheted ornaments. The only broken ornaments were caused by fumble fingered humans who dropped them!

OT: Yard cat in animal hospital

We won’t have a tree this year, if I have any say in the matter. It’s stored in Husband’s workshop below the main living level of the house, that has no direct entrance to the shop from the main part of the house. The bagged tree is probably on a high shelf. Husband hasn’t been well — vertigo, so getting up on a ladder is out of the question for him. I’m not too fond of it either. There are the four or five boxes of decorations to deal with, too. With only the two of us, it’s just not worth my effort, anymore. When you’re 78 and 80, you tucker out a lot faster than you used to. (May even have to do without the front door wreath; as I recall, it’s on the highest shelf of all, of course!).

I did, at least, decorate the railing from the main level of the house to the upstairs level I’m on right now, with a wreath and garland on the handrail. That will just have to do. Since our bedroom is on the main level, we’ll be able to see the garland any time we come out. There’s enough cooking, housekeeping and bookkeeping to keep me busy; I don’t need to pile on any more extra chores that could be dispensed with. No grown children to call on, nor will I ask help from the neighbors; they have their own list of must-dos. Makes me sound like the Grinch, doesn’t it? And that pretty well describes my attitude toward Christmas this year.

Apologies to all for the downer I’ve just unloaded on you. Really!!!

I may have mentioned this before but cats love to help.

December BCN calendar: Lupin as the Hanged Man major arcana card! In typical Lupin fashion, he is tangled up in the rope and enjoying it.

Yesterday in my household was filled with drama! First it was finally time for our little big girl, Dilly the Pickle princess, to get spayed. The vet’s office speculates that she may be part Savannah cat since she is a wild color and loves water and climbing. So we brought her home, still loopy from 3 day pain medication shot, and she rushes over to the large water dish and JUMPS in it with all four paws and starts splashing around like a child in a puddle until she finally manages to knock it over. Then does the same thing to the other water dish! Dilly, you crazy, girl.

But the real drama was our little little girl, Birdie, our recently rescued stray. When we picked Dilly up we got Birdie’s first set of kitten vaccinations, and for several hours Birdie seemed fine, played so much that we had to shut her in a separate room from Dilly so Dilly could rest. Then tuckered herself out and curled up in her hidey place behind the books on the bookshelf to sleep. Late that evening we fetched her out to check on her, and her poor little face was swollen so badly her eyes wouldn’t open, she hissed at us for touching her, and she could barely stand up! Allergic reaction to the shots apparently. So off we rush to the late night ER vet, and by the time we reached them, she was… fine again. Or at least much better. Swelling down to the point where she could see, paying attention to her surroundings. We had her checked out anyway and the ER vet which normally runs hundreds of dollars for even glancing in your direction kindly waved her fees and told us to call our own vet in the morning and keep an eye on her.

By morning Birdie was playing like nothing ever happened, and the vet’s receptionist says in 9 years of working there this is the first bad reaction she’s ever seen. Vet was dismayed and said “That’s really rare! I’m so sorry!” And of course it’s super, super rare to have a reaction hours later, usually an allergy will show up within a few minutes.

So all is well!

We have a no tinsel no garland policy due to kitties.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree. Your ornaments will soon be history.