By Shadow the Cat, as told to Kay Luckett
I am Shadow, and we cats feel the excitement coming in for the holidaze and the daze ahead. We are excited to be jolly and merry after being spooky and scary. Some of us were even dressed in costumes.
Even though we were cooperative, we want our humans to remember that we really don’t like it. The constrictive, hot, itchy nature of being dressed up isn’t comfy. We will join in with you, but please keep us in costumes only for short periods and photo shoots.
One year, we had a tree all decorated (without tinsel). Every time the electric garage-door opened, the tree would jiggle and shake. After watching it move, we had to jump up and check it out. That crashed the tree down to the floor. We had so much fun. Until the front door opened and our parents came in and discovered the mess, and us in it.
Ornaments were broken. There was much concern and hubbub about the glass being dangerous to us cats. Then Mom discovered that we may have eaten some of the greenery. She was upset and told us evergreens have harmful chemicals in the bark and sap. She said it could even leech into the tree’s water supply if the tree was alive.
Mom said the tree water had to be changed every day. Then she put a screen over it so we couldn’t drink it. It smelled so good, too.
Mom said that the oil on pine needles can actually puncture our digestive tract. If we swallowed the whole needle, it could lodge into our intestines like a sewing needle. Mom really didn’t like that. She said we could need surgery to take the pine needles out.
So there followed a huge deal while she opened our mouths to check for any sign of pine needles. She even sniffed our mouth to see if we smelled piney. I guess we were lucky, because we didn’t even have time to nibble on them before being busted.
Then Mom dived into the whole tree area. She checked to see if the cords and lights were okay. She wanted to keep all of that away from us as much as possible. Some of us are known cord chewers.
Mom wants the ambiance to be lovely, but she knows that candles are super dangerous for all of us. She says that the flameless battery-operated candles are the best.
More craze ensued in the next several daze as our folks started investigative behaviors around the house. I swear that they inspected every darn thing associated with the holidaze. Here’s what we told them.
Please keep us out of the way of guests and parties. Please put us in a safe, quiet place so we can stay calm.
Continue our non-holiday routine because you know we cats love routines and predictability. That means eating times and quiet times, and please remember to pet and snuggle us in spite of your stressful and chaotic vibes.
We like the foods we get for our regular meals but yes, if you over-treat us, we will pig out.
Holidaze can be dangerous days for us, and we want you to BEWARE of certain edibles. Mom even made a no-no list of the things cats can’t eat. She says they are VERY TOXIC, and her list included chocolate and candies, bones, avocados, and nuts and seeds. Then there is the stuff that humans like to put in stuffings—things like sugar, salt, fatty foods, garlic, onions, and mushrooms. Two-leggeds like this stuff, I’m told.
Then there are the pretty and tasty plants. Some are really bad for us if we eat them, but why wouldn’t we taste them? They look tasty. But Mom says they are really toxic (that means BAD) and they can make us sick. We could even die.
Mom is always watching for the signs we ate some: diarrhea, drooling, vomiting. Even seizures. The less obvious, quiet signs are decreased activity, hiding, or any other odd things. Beyond our usual oddnesses.
Mom continued to search the house. Then she found out that poinsettias can irritate us and shouldn’t be within our reach. But is anything really out of our reach? We are cats, after all. Be warned: we can go everywhere, including to the top of the tree.
Mom ended up putting the poinsettias outside.
Mom told us that her house-search found toxic and deadly plants everywhere: amaryllis, azaleas, chrysanthemums, evergreens (she said that means the green tree), holly, juniper, ivy, mistletoe (sadly, yes). We should probably emphasize that holly and even lilies are dangerous and toxic to us. And it’s so hard for us to resist taking just a nibble.
Then there’s the fun of holiday toys and wrappings and nonesuch—especially the super-fun ribbons.
Yes, we can roll and play in gift wrappings under the careful watch of a loving adult. Yes, we also resist being picked up and put into another room for our own safety, but we’ll get over it. We’ll also come out alive and healthy, calm, and untraumatized.
We like our own space that’s soothing, small, and quiet because that’s where we feel safe. Pheromone diffusers and sprays are great helps to our tranquility, so we can do what we love to do the most—eat catnip and then catnap while your party goes on.
We wish all of you a happy, delicious, joyous season, and good nights with warm snuggles.
Meow.
