After a stunning first ascent of the maple in our back yard and a thorough check of the brook, I enjoyed a couple minutes of sun today while playing with Oom.
We took a few minutes to sit under our big white pine tree and ponder the coming holiday. I'm a big fan of Thanksgiving. Oom and Boo are usually home, making good smells, different foods for me to taste, and friendly people come to visit. Cats sometimes get extra kibble during all this, I guess because people feel a little guilty, so they share the wealth.
Some years, the folks get bundled up and head off to someone else's house to eat dead bird. While we miss them, it gives us time to enjoy some catantics and, when they do come home, they're usually pretty pent up and ready to hang out and play, so it all works out.
This year we had an early Thanksgiving dinner with my Uncle Joel, my number two male human. I love Uncle Joel big. He is big and furry. As a rule, he is very serious, but he can get tremendously silly when he is with Boo who he is really old friends with - like beyond an entire cat generation or two - ancient. Most important, he loves me big too and gets very silly with me. Indeed, if Boo and Oom die because they finally just eat and drink too much one day, or get lost on one of those crazy hikes they take without me, Uncle Joel becomes my guy. Now, I don't want that to happen, but it's nice for a cat to have a back up plan.
Anyway, Uncle Joel and his mom came over and talked a lot then ate lots of steamy hot food and drank wine, talked more, and ate more food. Alex and I got to taste lots of stuff if we wanted too. Me, I mostly stuck to kibble that night - I'm a purist. Alex, she seems to like cranberry sauce and really had a bit of an affair with the apple pie - we've been instructed not to discuss it. We all fell into sated, sleepy heaps late that night....after more talking.
It's a good holiday. I like the presents and the tree of the big human holiday that coincides with catsolstice, but this holiday is very warm. I'm thankful for my humans, for my cat-pal Alex, for healthy kibble, my babbling brook, our new house and the wonderful forested world around it, and for my Yeowww! catnip green fish. I'm also mindful of all my furry pals who aren't as lucky as me. My good human friends at the Sauk County Humane Society and the North Country SPCA have helped a lot of cats and kittens find good homes. I'm thankful for the dedicated people who make places like these safe and hopeful way stations and for folks like you who support them.
Happy Turkey Day.
