O Catscratch Tree O Catscratch Tree
How shredded are thy branches!
O Catscratch Tree O Catscratch Tree
How shredded are thy branches!
You’re dragged around my house all day
Pine pitch in fur won’t go away
O Catscratch Tree O Catscratch Tree
How shredded are thy branches!
I moved out of my mother’s house after college, when I got my first job. Living alone for the first time was different, especially when the holidays rolled around, but it wasn’t bad – I was still close enough to drive home for Christmas. But in my apartment, I had to have some cheer, so I put colored lights all around the living room. At the time, I had no pets other than a hamster on speed (working at an emergency veterinary hospital kept me around animals 24/7). Then a year later, my sister moved in, we got a bigger place, and decided it was time to get two kittens.
Yes, like many of you we’d been raised with pets. And I was in the Veterinary field as a profession. I’m no newbie. So we found two of the cutest kittens in all the world – Legend and Fable. Months of happy kitten raising went by, and Christmas rolled around again. My sister and I realized we could buy a tree, decorate it, and even though we were going to drive home for Christmas evening (I had to work that day) we could make our apartment look like the holidays.
So we bought a tree. Just a little one, cute as could be. It stood maybe four feet high, and sat in a nice solid base. We put bulbs on, and lights – no tinsel because that’s too dangerous around pets. And our kitties – now about 5 months old, looked at the pretty colors in amazement.
That night, as we slept, they played. I think I must have gotten up about seven times to pick the tree back up. The next day, when I came home from work, I had to retrieve the tree from the kitchen. That night, I had an idea – take the tree to bed with me, and close the door !
BRILLIANT!
Fable could open doors, did I mention that?
It was an exciting holiday season, but they were young and the tree was too small. The next year, they were older, and our tree was a decent 5-footer. It lasted four days.
The year after that, we tried the opposite approach and got a 3 foot tree so I could lock it in the closet at night and during the day while we were at work.
Did I mention how Fable could open doors?
The year after that we tried to figure out how to hang a Christmas tree from the ceiling and couldn’t quite get our minds wrapped around it, so we put lights around the fireplace and called it good. And for years afterward, that was our Christmas decor. Lights inside the apartment. Then one year we moved out of the city and back to the town we grew up in, because I had a new job and my sister had always wanted to move back. Renting my father’s unused condo gave us lots more room, and we aquired two more kittens – Figment and Muse. That Christmas, the lights went up around the fireplace, and up this open-concept staircase in the condo.
Did you know if a 20lb grey and white cat puts Christmas lights in his mouth, you can see through his cheeks?
New Tradition: Christmas lights on the OUTSIDE only.
Those four cats are gone now, and we have two stray bizarro twins – Rumor and Secret. Rumor, the big fella, likes to drag things around the house. If he wants your coat, and it’s in the mud room, he’ll drag it to the living room. There’s a nice throw blanket on your bed? He’s pulled it to the kitchen. His brother, Secret, takes advantage of these feats and curls up in the coat, or the blanket, or the bra, or the panties, or whatever else his brother has dragged to where he feels they belong.
I haven’t seen a Christmas Tree in over 20 years!
I could have trained them, I am an expert in the field, after all. But really it was a nice excuse to avoid all the mess and fuss and disposal of a dead tree. We have a house now that’s ours, so we have trees in the yard we can decorate with lights and bird treats – we have archways and porches that we string with lights – we even have a timer turn them on at dusk and off at dawn. And we’re freed from the hassels of storing, putting out and putting away seasonal decorations.
Gone are those December nights, sitting around a beautfilly lit tree sparkling in the color of lighted splendor. Gone is the scent of pine in the house, mixing with the hot cocoa you’re sipping after a long day of playing in the snow. Gone are the long nights of wonder and remembrance, gazing into the antique decorations from holidays past.
Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On cometh the time for new ways and traditions!
What changed for you over the years? Have you made new traditions and cast off the old?
The Velvet Zebra 
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