Tis the season to post about my Christmas Tree. As I've mentioned before, the tree has been up since 2009 and up until this year, it existed
relatively untouched with the exception of adding new ornaments.
This is what it looked like.
That was before Roger.
Roger...or ROGER! as his name is properly pronounced, came
to us in February. It was the morning before a huge snow storm. I was awoken
from a sound sleep just before sunrise by the sound of a cat wailing. I thought
one of our pride had gotten stuck somewhere, or locked in the hall, or maybe
sick. But when I went downstairs to make a headcount, I found our cats safe and
sound and Paul getting dressed to go out and investigate.
He didn't have to go far. This young cat—no longer a kitten,
but not full grown—was huddled under our car. By the time I got to the kitchen
window, the cat had come out and was circling Paul's legs.
What followed was this quick conversation.
"Should we?"
"You know what that means."
"The storm's coming, we can't leave him out here."
"Do you think he belongs to anyone?"
"He's friendly."
I passed some food out the window to Paul and the cat went
for it.
"He's hungry."
"Should I open the back door?"
"The rule applies."
"I'll go open the door. We'll see what he does."
When I opened the door the cat came right in...and became
ours—or we became his. You see, the rule is, if we let the pet cross the
threshold, it's found a home.
We brought him up to my office, he looked around and (I
swear) he sighed with relief before settling down for a nap.
What does all this have to do with the tree?
Well, at first Roger was docile. Probably because of the
wound we found in his side. But once he healed he turned out to be every bit
the energetic adolescent boy. He was always hungry, always getting into
trouble, and always trying to get the other cats to chase him.
And once he healed completely, we learned he's a climber.
That's when we learned that his name isn't "Roger" it's "ROGER!"
as in ROGER! GET DOWN!
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I've taken all of our more fragile ornaments off, and the
special ones that were gifts were placed in a box.
Finally, with little left to pull down from the tree's
branches, Roger began taking down the branches.
Here's what our tree and Roger look like today.
I don't have the heart to take it down just yet. Roger
enjoys it so much.
Maybe once the holidays are over...or maybe I'll just put it
back together so he can start again. After all, it makes every day Christmas
for Roger.
