...in my older cats.

Shadow HAD to help me wrap gifts yesterday. He had to hold the gift wrap down to the top of the bed, you know just in case we had a sudden high wind roll through the house.

Each package had to be examined, each article of clothing needed a few cat hairs for decoration. Each gift box had to be tested to see if it was cat butt wide.

Then he started snooping... and found his Pounce. He pestered me for an hour to keep giving him more.

Webster figured I needed even more help.. but he was strictly in the snooping mode.. and found the catnip on my dresser. I put in in a small drawer on the top of my dresser, so he spent the next half an hour with his nose glued to the crack of the drawer.

Then Hobbes came in, by that time Shadow was frantically jumping ( mind you Shadow is 16.5 and has trouble jumping too far too often these days) up and down on and off our very high antique bed. He made a broad jump from the bathroom doorway to the top of the bed over a pile of packing discards that amazed me. He'd tromp across the pillows, through the wrap, over the 'to wraps' off the side of the bed and circle back again.. over and over and over.

To say that wrapping presents took twice as long as it should have would be an understatement. But it was fun to see the boys getting excited. Maybe they will play in the packages again this year.

Copyright © Marcia Newell
December 10, 2000