A Good Time Had By All

Christmas was enjoyable this year. I didn’t get the whole Twelve Days off, unfortunately. That would have been nice, though the relaxation gained would probably have been disturbed by the stress of not getting paid for that period of almost two weeks. So I went back to work.

The cats seemed to enjoy the holiday, too, as short as my time off was. There was no fighting and very little hissing. I had a fire going in the grate on Christmas Day, even though the temperature was ten degrees centigrade - about fifty above, Fahrenheit - with no snow on the ground at all. Southern Alberta was a dirt brown colour. But I thought I’d have a fire anyway. A good one was going when Tungsten decided that it generated a nicer warmth than her heating pad, and settled down with her bum toward the flames.

The orange one has once again started to join Renn on the bathmat when I have a bath Saturday nights. Showers are no big occasion for those two, but baths demand an audience, even if they sleep through it. This past weekend, Tungsten was sitting sedately waiting for the tub to fill, and Renn was, as usual, roaming about, butting into walls and doors, arching his back, purring, falling down, rolling over. He becomes most excited at bath-time. At one point, he flopped down and knocked Tungsten off her feet and into the side of the tub. There was no harm done, though, and my big boy was soon calm and snoozing with the orange one in the warm, comforting air.

Even though Tungsten wasn’t bothered by Renn’s exuberance, she may have had something to do with the second scratch on Tucker’s nose. Josie is another candidate for its infliction. The poor roly poly’s proboscis seems to attract claws, though this time it wasn’t as bad as the first. I’d heard the day before a fierce screaming session from the ground floor when I was in the basement. By the time I arrived on the scene, all was calm. I didn’t notice Tucker’s nose until later. He seems none the worse for it, though, and I’ll wager that he hasn’t learned his lesson, either.

Josie has taken to enjoying a new place to lie. When I decorated the house and tree for Christmas, I put to one side the empty box from which the various ornaments were taken. If a cat can’t get into a box, the next best thing is to be on a box. Josie thought this spot was nice. Then, I put a little ‘cat quilt’ on it. It’s a small, thin quilt that I bought through an on-line auction. I wouldn’t have thought that it would make much of a difference, but it’s become a spot to rival the top of the tallest cat-tree. Josie loves lying on the little quilt on top of the box; she even snoozes there. I’ll have to arrange something similar when the box is re-filled with Christmas decorations and packed away. The other cats have tried it, but my Chubs likes it the most.

So, though Christmas has not been overly exciting, it has had its events. We live a quiet existence at our household, and the cats prefer it that way. A bit of weekly excitement, such as bath-time, a tussle now and then, and a new place to sleep. As long as the food continues to come regularly, that seems to be all my cats need for a good holiday.