Archive for December 28th, 2006

“My previous cats never did that,” I muttered. I held an especially full tree away from my body at arms length. “This one is good.”

“I’m thinking of attaching two cords to the limbs and then stretching them to the wall,” Kip continued.

I gave him a glance over my shoulder. “Do you like this one?”

“Sure, sure.” He frowned, not listening to me at all.

Once the tree was selected and tied to the hood of our car, we drove home and the discussion continued.

“Cats have been known to destroy Christmas trees,” Kip said.

“I don’t think we need to worry.” I gazed out at the pretty lights that twinkled on houses and lighted shrubs. The sky was jet black and clear with a thousand little sparks of star light.

“How can you be sure?”

“I’m thinking optimistically.”

“Time will tell,” Kip said.

The cats did not climb the tree and I managed to prevent Kip from stringing cords from limb to wall like so many spider webs.

They did redecorate it, however. In the days before Christmas, the perfectly symmetrical tree began to look a bit unbalanced as Gizmo and Maia removed the ornaments one by one and scattered them throughout the house. When I found one, I carefully picked it up and placed it a bit higher on the tree. By Christmas Eve the limbs of our perfect tree were bare from the floor upwards for about 2 feet. All the pretty ornaments winked from mid tree on up.

“I told you they’d mess with it,” Kip reminded me.

I shook my head. “No…you said they’d climb it.”

“Same thing.”