If Smokey the cat thought he died and went to Heaven for Thanksgiving, he sure did an encore for the following Christmas. We had decided when we rescued him it would be better for him to become an indoor cat; not half in and half out, but all the way inside. He didn't seem to mind this. He no longer had to "sing for his supper" so to speak, and it must have been nice to be warm all the time, with all his meals delivered, some even cooked. The only hunting he did in the last few weeks almost bagged him a turkey leg.
In those days, we had real Christmas trees, and we loved the fresh evergreen smell they wafted into the house. The tree that year had an unintended effect on Smokey, who must have thought he was outside again. It's hard to explain, but the tree had the same effect as a giant sprig of catnip. He would run under the tree, which was in the corner, out the other end, then through several rooms in the house. We yelled when he did this, and he seemed to get the message, before we started decorating the tree.
But he didn't, really get the message.
We were in the kitchen cleaning when we heard a crash, with the sound of glass ornaments breaking, and water spilling onto the living room floor. Seconds later, we saw Smokey calmly licking his wet paws, which fortunately weren't cut.
We righted the tree, cleaned the mess, then I got an eye hook for the corner seam of the wall, and some mono filament fishing line to anchor the tree to it.
Smokey did get the message this time, and never longed for the great outdoors again.
I followed this procedure each year after that, and when we moved out of that house, I left the eye hook in the corner, in case next owner had a cat and a Christmas tree.
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