And a Friday in a pear tree...

Friday loves Christmas. He lives to chew on bows, pounce tissue paper and climb the tree. Over the years, I've learned a few things about living with him during the holidays. I don't put bows on packages until I'm loading them in the car. That saves a lot of embarrassing explaining to friends and family about why the bow on their gift looks like it was attacked by an angry paper shredder. When wrapping, I just give him his own sheet of tissue paper. He can amuse himself for hours and forgets that I have a stack of the crinkly paper right next to me. Ok, he doesn't forget and sometimes he gets two sheets but it avoids a sudden and unexpected pounce to the paper while I'm assembling the wrapping. Finally, I mash the hooks for the ornaments down tight and don't worry about the tree. I confess, I think it's really funny when he peaks out at me and at eight years old he's cut down on his tree time. Still, hanging out in the tree is high on his list of fun things and with an 8 month old kitten in the house, he often uses it as a kitten-free hideout.

Yesterday, I strolled in the dining room to wrap a few gifts and organize the room. Friday and the kitten, Seti, were chasing each other through the house. Friday believes he is very, very fast. He knows in his heart he could win the Kentucky Derby when the truth is he's actually quite slow. Still, he enjoys the delusion and the kitten was ruining it since the kitten actually is fast and Friday was repeated pounced. He “zipped” into the dining room with me, got tackled, again, and headed for his refuge in the branches of plastic. The tree rattled as he climbed up and settled in. I walked over and peeked in at him. He beamed at me, pleased with himself.



He was still and the tree didn't seem in danger of collapsing so I returned to my wrapping. After several minutes, he again began to wiggle around causing the branches to shake and the ornaments to bounce. He kept this up much longer than usual. Concerned he was playing with an ornament or attacking the lights I went back to the tree to check on him. He gazed at me. The look of self-congratulations replaced by concern. I stuck my hands in and tried to lift. He growled low in his throat. Can't be. I ran my fingers around him and sure enough he'd managed to wedge himself in the tree. He was firmly stuck, a strange, fluffy Christmas ornament! I couldn't help it. I laughed at him. The brilliant cat who can open doors with his paws managed to get himself stuck, again! For such a smart cat he really has a knack of getting into some unusual situations. After some finessing on my part and copious growling on his part I freed him from the tree. He doesn't seem any worse for wear but he hasn't been back in the tree since!

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Merry Christmas Kitty

See my Christmas tree!



Wait. What's that?



It's Friday!

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Kitten Under (In) the Christmas Tree

I have psychosis which Dictionary.com defines as, “any severe form of mental disorder, as schizophrenia or paranoia.” What mental disorder I have is questionable, what is certain is that whatever it may be, it's severe. How do I know I suffer from such affliction you may ask? It's simple. I put up a Christmas tree. Why did I put up a Christmas tree? Was it to celebrate one of my favorite holidays? Was it to enjoy the warm twinkling of the lights? NO! I put up a Christmas tree because I didn't think it was fair to ask my new kitten, Seti, to miss out on the joys of slapping ornaments, climbing to eye level with me or (his favorite) attacking the tree skirt and dragging it to the other side of the room. Textbook psychosis.

I first became anti-put-up-Christmas-tree when Friday was young. Christmas is Friday's favorite holiday. It contains all his favorite toys: bows, paper and, of course, trees. He decided the tree made a killer cat fort. It's an ancient fake-tree (I shudder to think what sap from a real tree would do to his thick fur. He bleeds me for brushing him; cutting little clumps of sap-soaked fur would be like voluntarily entering a torture chamber.). At least seven years ago, Friday climbed to the top of the tree for a nap. There's still a bald spot. I'll never forget walking through the living room and being possessed with the feeling that the tree was looking at me.

Once, he used the tree to hide cookies he stole from my grandfather. Who knew cats like Gingersnaps? As I prepared to put a large package behind the tree I noticed the cookie stash. There was a whole cookie, a half a cookie and a pile of suspicious crumbs. Grandpa shouldn't have fallen asleep and left his snacks unguarded around such a sneaky thief.

What have I learned from my years of living with Friday during the holidays? As I scoop the tree skirt up another time I sigh and realize I've learned nothing more than to bend the ornament hooks down really tight and pray no one chews on the light strands. Still, watching the cats play with the decorations makes me feel better about not having cable. There's nothing on more entertaining than a cat at Christmas!



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The Laughing Cat Edition 3

Cats and laughter just seem to go together. Who needs TV when you've got a new kitten like I do? TV is predictable. Cats, on the other paw, are spontaneous. It seems like just when you think you've got them figured out they think of new and hilarious ways to keep us guessing. The third edition of The Laughing Cat celebrates a few of those feline antics that keep us giggling and coming back for more!


Is it laughter? Is it rage? Either way we think Samantha from Life From a Cat's Perspective is one funny cat! Look out Tigger!

Ron King presents iPod Loving Cat posted at Cat Care, Breeds and Resources Blog. Who doesn't love a little music mixed with their cat?

Rob presents Misia helps with the diet posted at Dusk and Dawn, saying, "Misia has been doing her best to help with my recent diet. If only she weren't so strict...." Chocolate lovers and compulsive snackers beware!

Abbey presents Cat & Rat Introduction posted at DSM Fish Gal. Cats and rats together? What could go wrong?

Bob O'Hara presents Why I've not been blogging much posted at Deep Thoughts and Silliness, saying, "I consider this a public service, to warn the world of what it may face."

Cheysuli presents Thankful Thursday posted at Chey's place. What sort of carnival would this be without a Meezer to help us laugh our way through?

Miss D presents A CD Spool Cat Toy and The Wonderpet Cat Tunnel posted at Prefurr.com, saying, "Mei Mei thinks the wonderpet cat tunnel is the king of toys." Now, where can I find a CD spool?

Thanks to everyone who participated! Our fourth edition will be right here November 6th. Submit your funnies via Blog Carnival by November 5th!

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It's Coming!

The Laughing Cat carnival edition three will be here next week! Don't forget to submit your funniest cat stories, photos, poems, whatever to join in the fun! Submissions can be made via email or through the Blog Carnival submission page. They're due by Monday. Come back Tuesday to read about the funniest cats on the web!
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Boredom Leads to Cat House

I was bored. Always dangerous. Bored in Target (as I happened to be on that occasion) is usually a financial liability. Instead of spending bored money on myself I decided to shop for my cats. I selected this the Large Cat Jungle Gym. It looked like something the cats would enjoy and had the added bonus of lots of parts to put together so I was assured some amusement as well.

I brought it home, fired up the camera and asked who wanted to help me put it together. Friday was laying in the window watching birds. Kit stole a piece of the jungle gym and zipped down the hall to play with it. Hemmy offered to supervise.

Luckily I now have Seti who was delighted to help. Lucky, lucky me.

Seti and I got to work. He was responsible for touching each piece with his paw as I picked it up and biting the instructions. I did the rest. He took his responsibilities seriously. He was concerned about this particular note that was attached to the pop up canvas "cat house."
We took the warning seriously; it was on yellow paper after all. We opened the cat house very, very carefully and were disappointed when the best it could muster was a small stretch. We were hoping for something a touch more dramatic. We moved on.

After staring at the picture and screwing my face up into various expressions of confusion and frustration Friday took pity on me and helped. I soon made a box.

I was pretty pleased with my accomplishment. I'm no engineer. I'm a pet sitter. Luckily, I'm pretty creative so once I got the feel for the pieces I really picked up speed. I made lots of boxes.

It didn't take long to put the canvas pieces on either. Soon we had a new cat fort and Supervisor Hemmy decided to be the first in. He deemed it "fun" and soon everyone else came in for a turn.

Seti's favorite part? The dangly toy mice of course!
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The Laughing Cat Edition 2!

The September 4th edition of The Laughing Cat Carnival didn't quite make it up on time due to technical difficulties. Since you must own/borrow a computer to read this I'm certain you understand! Anyway, here it is the second edition of The Laughing Cat, late but as funny as ever!

GrrlScientist presents Jack, the Lion-Hearted Housecat posted at Living the Scientific Life. This is one of my personal all-time favs!

xco presents Bitchslapped posted at Blame It On The Voices. This reminds of me of the time my cat Kit decided to murder my father-in-law's Labrador.

xco presents Blame It On The Voices: Cat vs. Kid. Cat vs. Kid, you know who wins.

Alta presents Biscuits In The Dresser posted at Love Country Living. This family has a great story and excellent advice for what cat owners should do when they find clumps of cat hair around the house!

Jon Rochetti presents Cat Fight posted at The DC Traveler. Scroll down to watch the video of the World's Stupidest Monkey!

That concludes September's hilarity! Be back here October 2nd for more feline mayhem!

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