Cats enjoy Christmas trees, too

We are decorating our Christmas tree with live cats. We have no other choice.

We bought the Douglas fir 10 days ago. It was lush and bushy and magnificent. It was actually too big for the spot we put it in. But it looked and smelled like Christmas should look and smell like. It was our little corner of forest paradise.

It took only a few moments for our cats to start investigating. We have three adult cats and are foster parents to a gray and white kitten.

Grey Kitty was the first to climb up the tree. I took a few pictures because he looked so cute playing peek-a-boo. Then the adult cats started their annual posturing to claim the new territory. I let them have their fun for a few moments — well, actually, a few hours. Then I pulled out the anti-cat artillery. It’s the only way to train them to stay off the tree before we put on the ornaments.

We squirt the cats with water. What is it about cats and water? They react as if we had tossed acid in their faces. It’s not as if it’s the element of surprise, since they see us standing there with the spray bottle.

It’s kind of fun. It’s our own version of Whac-a-Mole, the carnival game where plastic moles pop out of a hole and get bonked on the head with a mallet.

Gray Kitty uses the springy branches to his advantage when wrestling with one of the adult cats. He jumps on a branch and while it bounces and distracts his opponent, he pounces on the other cat.

The tree is now looking a little skimpy. It has lost many of its needles from all the vigorous shaking and climbing. There are many broken branches from its use as a kitty catapult. Our tree won’t win a best decorated contest or be photographed for Martha Stewart’s magazine. Yet, I think I have enjoyed this tree almost as much as the cats have.

My daughter Elise will be in town and will most likely insist on decorating the tree. It’s an annual tradition that she get poked in the eye by a branch while decorating it.

She thinks we have too many cats; yet, she recently adopted a kitten that was hit by a car and has some permanent injuries. Why do our children only pick up our bad habits, when we have so many other redeeming qualities?

Christmas is always special when there are children around. And animals and their antics make it even more enjoyable.

Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas with your loved ones — human and furry.

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Nora N. Garza is a County Extension Agent with Texas Cooperative Extension of Hidalgo County, a part of the Texas A&M University System. She can be reached at 383-1026 or n-garza@tamu.edu.