Tinsel, Glitter and Baubles - the Excellent Cats prepare to knock Everything off your Christmas Tree

[TheShellBeach]

As we approach the festive season, they're already finessing their plans and recalling last year's successes............

I'm leaving the country for ten days so have just explained the instructions to the cat sitter. Poor woman was like this 🤔🤨😳😵

Skinny cat gets lots of food.
Fat cat gets little food.
Neurotic cat gets something in between.
Must stand over the cats during feeding times to ensure fat cat does not eat skinny cat's and neurotic cat's food.
All cats must get outside during the day for exercise.

English is not her first language but her WTF face is definitely a universal language 😂

Has she got all that written down??

I’ve got a friend whose cats have microchip sensors on their feeders. Apparently it was the only way to stop Big Cat wolfing all his food & going after Little Cat’s.

@PollyCreo Haha I would definitely leave her a note with all that written down 😄

We are going away for 2 nights between Christmas and NYE and we've found a teenager up the road who's going to come in and feed Kettle and sort his litter tray. I am already nervous to leave him but we'll only be an hour away.

The teenager seems lovely and came over with her mum and little sister to meet him and see where everything is. Coincidentally they are the owners of our old NMC friend (who has sadly dropped us since we got Kettle) and I think people who have such a nice cat are probably good sorts! It's funny to meet people and show them a photo of their cat sitting on your lap 😄

My cat sitter, H, has been looking after Kitty for a while now so they’re old mates & H knows all about her. Kitty always runs to her with tail up & then has a thorough sniff. It makes me feel a lot less guilty about holidays.

Kitty’s got a Christmas present for H’s cats which will be waiting in the food cupboard

Of course if it works out, we'll ask them again in the future. I'd be happy to look after their two cats as well (I'd like to see our old friend again!), since we only live 100 metres from each other. And the 17 year old has an 11 year old sister who could take her place when she moves out. I've got my fingers crossed we can set up a good system here.

@EmpressaurusKitty @Esgaroth my usual cat sitter is unfortunately away this Christmas, he used to send me daily photos of my cats when he was looking after them.

New cat sitting lady hasn't been warned about the velcro-kitty tendencies of neurotic cat 🙀

Clowder! (I am absurdly pleased that I know this term!)

I got excited and rushed to post before seeing Rum's excellent and educational reply, every day is a school day!🤣

That sounds perfect, @Esgaroth!

@PollyCreo, are you going to warn her?

H sends me videos. When I’m away, people have got used to me disappearing for half an hour or so with a quick ‘Sorry, cat.’

It's funny to meet people and show them a photo of their cat sitting on your lap

A while ago, Picard's mum and I were giving first aid outside to a woman who had fallen in the car park. We hadn't met before that.

While we waited for the ambulance I showed her the many, many pictures I had on my phone of Picard. Picard in our house, Picard asleep on our bed, Picard in our garden.

She was......... surprised.
🤣

Breadcat says Merry Christmas to all the excellent cats

Kitty says Happy Christmas, Breadcat! She contributed by sitting on the crackers.

Lexter says is it turkey time yet?

Merry Christmas to darling Breadcat!
And Lexter......... you're a couple of days early.
But you'll get lots of turkey, very soon.

The turkey is 4.4kg. Lexter will have a lot of turkey. I was going to say as much as he can eat but I reckon he could probably eat at least a quarter of it if I let him.

It's taken her nearly a week but she climbed it today. Twice..

Elton says will pose for snacks

It's very kind of her to decorate your Christmas tree for you. She is very pretty. I've given up on the tree for this year due to house renovations and cats.

Gosh don't tell her. She's a right madam who bullies the dog and my other cat and we had the tree's integrated lights for one year as she chewed them year 2!
But she's lovely.

Oops 😬

The demons have had Bonkers treats tonight. I have to channel my inner "Pigeon Lady from Mary Poppins" and scatter the treats in order for them to have a chance at all getting some. Thankfully I tidied earlier so the floor is totally clear and easier for them to find all the treats.

Vixie and Ghost have their own little treat piles though cause they're too ladylike to join the scrum with the others 😂

Kitty’s decided that as well as her fountain, and the jug that she personally decided to use as a water bowl, she needs to lick the water drips from my shower mat.

We normally only put the tree up on Christmas Eve but DS1's GF is going to her folks this Christmas and is coming over to us today instead, so tradition be damned - we put it up last night.
Basil denies all responsibility for the fallen bauble...

Herbie has been in a strange mood, he tried to swipe at me through the railings on the landing as I went downstairs. Nice...
Then I realised he was stalking a tiny woodlouse but I think it was too small for him to catch! He prefers bigger prey such as pigeons..
Here is half a Herbie!

The Pollock duo have been exceptionally well behaved around the Christmas tree this year... but they may have lulled me into a false sense of security so I'm still suspicious... a leopard never changes its spots (even black ones)

However I just saw this on Bluesky - a NMO!
(A huge barred owl flew down a Virginia family’s chimney, knocked over the star on top of their Christmas tree, and perched himself on top) 🙀