Christmas As Seen Through The Eyes of a Puma (or, a Tonkinese kitten)

Decorating this year has a new set of challenges. Little Puma Pink Pads, aka, Alfie, is still very much in the kitten stage of his life. He is one year old this month, and no longer has the boxy look of a kitten, but the more elongated look of a cat. But, his breed, a Tonkinese, is a very small breed of cat, and he is still well under five pounds. Smokey, on the other paw, weighs easily three times that. Alfie sees the world through eternally enormous, round sea-green eyes; taking in everything, forgetting nothing. He is fearless. He is a PUMA. Because of my travel plans, I have opted out of a live tree this year, and will use the artificial I've got stowed in the storage room. Perhaps it will be a tad less of a temptation for the Puma to investigate. As it is now, without the tree up, I routinely hear the angel from the creche taking a tumble to the floor. There is just something about that damned halo that Alfie finds so irresistable to swipe at. The candles in the windows are nearly always lying pitifully on their sides, with the last bits of energy winking out of the bulbs, or have crashed all the way to the floor and have rolled under the couch. I don't dare try tinsel on the tree. Even the past two years, Smokey, who is past the age of feline caring of such things as stalking Christmas trees, has done his part to collect tinsel from the tree from his ever-swishing tail as he strolls past it, and then drops it in every room of the house. I am still finding tinsel from LAST year in the strangest places. Even found a strand in my sock drawer the other day. Little Puma Pink Pads has certainly livened up the atmosphere in this home since his arrival in April. Never a dull moment. He is totally unafraid of anything. And loves everyone and everything with equal gusto. Visitors to my home had best love dogs and cats, because they will be inundated with exuberant, sweet little pets.When friends asked if they could bring their son's girlfriend along to Thanksgiving dinner, I said yes, of course, and they added that she was afraid of dogs. I said, "These are excellent 'starter dogs' And, Puma is an excellent 'starter cat'. He plunks himself into the lap of every visitor, giving everyone a fair share. When my friend, Shivani, who visited recently, was seated on the couch, Alfie was seated on the arm directly next to her. Suddenly, without warning or fanfare, he simply fell onto the floor; not even attempting to save himself, and landing with a solid thud when he hit the floor. Once, when I was cleaning the toilet in the master bath, Alfie was supervising from the edge of the tub, and leapt to the rim of the toilet for a better view, only to skid helplessly off the porcelain rim and plunk directly into the water. With his arms hooked around the rim, he paddled his legs in the water, trying to gain some sort of purchase for an exit. I was laughing so hard it took me a bit to fish him out, but not before Luppet, the surrogate mother, hurried anxiously in from the front part of the house to see what sort of trouble 'her' kitten had landed himself into this time. Simply put, Alfie is a klutz. For a kitten who has difficulty remaining erect on a stationary horizontal sofa arm, he has little hope of successfully navigating a vertical Christmas tree, filled with dozens of brilliant, shiny ornaments. Time will tell. I am planning to erect the tree this coming weekend. I'll keep you all posted on how that all works out.