A couple of days ago, while I was eating my breakfast and reading the paper, our 2 new kittens, Lucy and Linus, bolted across our living room then jumped about halfway up our Christmas tree. If that wasn’t wild enough, each of them eventually settled down, all laid out on one(or two, I didn’t count) of the tree’s branches.

It was almost like they were saying, “Man that was exhausting, let’s take a break.”

To any pet owners reading this blog, what I just described might not sound that strange considering what time of year it is. Since I first witnessed them do this, each one has made a few more leaps into the tree, but I haven’t gotten angry with them. Here’s why:

-first of all, we use an artificial tree so there isn’t nearly as big a mess to clean up when the cats decide to move on.

-It’s not as if they are sucking down any of the ornaments though they do enjoy smacking them with their paws occasionally

-all this running and climbing tires them out so they sleep for a pretty long time afterward.

Now I’m sure every family has similar types of strange things happening or a defining moment around the holidays that they and their families will remember for many years. It just so happens that one of the things I know that I will remember most clearly was how, with every single leap or swat, these kittens were basically using our tree as their own playground. Both Linus and Lucy had been taken from their previous owners because those people had mistreated, even abused them so I wasn’t about to make a big deal about them having a little fun, even if I wasn’t used to what kinds of things they considered to be fun.

After all, Christmas is right around the corner so the tree will be taken down in less than a month. Then they will find some other way to have a little fun. I think we’ll manage. Happy holidays to all!!