Between You, Me and the Lamp
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Day 96: In Search of Balls
Christmas is coming and we’re
ready for it. The tree is up, and the house is decorated. But oh, what a
struggle it has been.
Every year I like to give
the Christmas tree a certain theme. Last year it was red and gold balls, the
year before blue and silver. For this year I wanted lilac or pink and silver
balls but try as I might, nowhere could I find lilac or pink balls.
I tried Walmart, Canadian
Tire, Home Depot, even the local Dollar store, but while they had all kinds of
beautiful balls, nobody had lilac or pink. I even tried Costco, but they didn’t
have any either.
“Try Amazon,” someone
suggested. “They have lots of balls.” So I did and I indeed found a variety of lilac
and pink balls, but I could only expect delivery in January 2020. Well, that
was no good. So the theme of the tree would have to be red and gold again.
We got started by getting
the Christmas tree out of the storage unit. Not an easy task as the storage
cabinet holds a variety of other stuff: Easter decorations, Halloween
decorations, toolboxes, two fans, cat carriers, etc.
When the tree was out and
the branches unfolded the decorating could begin: first the lights, then the
balls, then the tinsel. All the while, Charlotte, Holly, Halley, and Greyson
were keeping an eye on the proceedings.
I knew what they were up to, they
wanted to touch one of the balls, but that was of course not allowed.
Not that cats care about what
is allowed and what is not, they pretty much do what they want. And they did. No sooner was the decoration of the tree completed or Holly (ever the leader of
the pack) was going to try something.
Tap, tap, her paw went
against a little golden ball. “Eh eh,” I wagged a finger, “mag da?”
(translation … is that allowed? Yes, my cats are bilingual). Holly hesitated
and put her paw down. No sooner was my back turned or … pong, pong-pong-pong-pong-pong
… I heard a ball drop and bounce across the floor.
When I went to check my
suspicion was confirmed. Holly had knocked a ball off the tree and was now expertly
batting it. I briefly considered taking it away from her, but what would be the
point, she would just knock another off the tree. So I let her keep it.
Of course, Holly is not my
only cat, I have three others. I had nothing to fear from Charlotte, she’s 15
or 16 years old and is as good as gold, but the same cannot be said from Halley
and Greyson. Both of them are under two years old and get up to all sorts of
mischief.
Halley was surprisingly well
behaved, but Greyson … OMG. Give that him half a chance and he’s up to something.
His favorite is biting the branches of the tree and no matter how many times we
say “Greyson, no, it’s fake” he doesn’t care.
Oh well, I’m not going to
stress over it, after all, it’s only Christmas once a year.
