New Tradition?

Today for Christmas my mother and I watched videos of cats interacting with Christmas trees  Neither one of us have a decorated tree this year and we're both cat lovers.  After watching these vidoes, we realized our cats were relatively good in the past. I don't think my artificial tree is big enough or full-bodied enough to be enticing.

 

In the video below I think Shorty and Kodi get the prize for being the most "helpful."

 

 

This is one of my favorites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy, Joy

A little while ago I wrote about knitted birds for Christmas.  A friend of mine especially likes cardinals and I wanted to knit her one.  I even bought the pattern.  However, I was not very happy that it seemed like I had to buy an entire hank of gold yarn to knit a little, bitty gold beak.  Then I noticed a drawing and did some investigation.  Cardinals' beaks are red! I don't have to buy gold yarn.

Best piece of news I've had in a while.  Now all I have to worry about is attaching the eye, without the little white felt circle since the bird obviously doesn't have that either. 

Cat Agility

Several years ago my mother moved into a very nice senior citizens' apartment complex, Bethany Village Apartments.  Unfortunately she's allowed only one cat.  Understandably her cat Susie is a little tubby and a little bored.  I've mentioned cat agility exercises to my mother before, but she doesn't seem interested.  I wonder if someone else would.

Here is a wonderful video demonstrating what cats can do:

I have one cat who goes into crazy zooming mode and runs from one end of the apartment to another and does what I call circuits around the living room. If she ate treats that were good for her, besides catnip, she might enjoy this.

Here's a photo from the web site from International Cat Agility Tournaments with some upscale equipment.  The young man in the video made his own equipment, so it can be low cost.

Here I was just thinking it would be a good thing for high energy or tubby cats who are bored and need something to do.  You know what it's like when a high energy cat is bored. They either bother you for attention, get into something they shouldn't or keep you up at night.  Put the cat through the agility course a couple times and s/he should leave you alone for a while.

The Most Beautiful Christmas Tree

This in my mind was the most beautiful Christmas tree I ever had in all my life:

 

 

 

This is what a Christmas tree is supposed to look like, not one of those unnatural, bristly, upside-down cones that hardly have room for ornaments.  This tree had one flaw but you can't tell.  It had a bottom branch that hung too long, so I pulled it up with a wire and anchored it.

The fun began for the cats before I even had it up.

 

 

Unfortunately I have to deprive them of a real Christmas tree these days.  I found out they release thousands of mold spores inside and I'm allergic to mold.  I'll never find another tree like this anyway.