Apricot's First Christmas Tree

Today is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. This is the day I officially start Christmas by putting up my Christmas tree.

Last year I didn't have Christmas because Pippin was gone and it was his favorite holiday. I didn't want to have it without him. I'm not sure but that I didn't make a mistake, skipping Christmas last year. However, since no strange man in a blue box has showed up to let me go back in time, I have to live with my decision!

But this year I wanted to have Christmas. I just didn't know how my scaredy cat would respond. I didn't even know how to explain Christmas to him. The tree part. What, should I tell him I'm bringing in a tree? No, it's a fake tree, not a real one. And I put lights on it. And hang things on it. It's all perfectly logical. And impossible to explain. I might as well try to explain the computer to him.

I got the giant green bag that holds the tree during the year out of the shed and put it on the back porch. Apricot didn't even let me get to the point of bringing the tree sections inside. He saw the green bag on the porch through the patio doors (from across the room in the hallway entrance!) and skedaddled into the bedroom and under the headboard.

Sigh. Well, it'll be easier without having to be slow and careful around him. I set up the tree, bringing all the pieces in and stacking them in order (hey, I got it right the first time for once) and getting the branches spread out. I don't have to attach branches to the tree like some fake trees, but the top ones get a bit scrunched together during the year.

And I got out the tree skirt and the lights and a few household non-tree decorations from the closet I keep those in. I was grateful for Apricot's disappearing act here because I'd forgotten that the closet the Christmas stuff is in (minus the ornaments) is the same closet where the vacuum cleaner monster lives. Oops.

I played Christmas music and circled the tree with the lights, starting at the bottom and going around and around to the top. I actually got myself a smidge dizzy doing it, too! That's never happened before.

I didn't put the ornaments on. I'll do that later. I want Apricot to get used to the tree before I start hanging things all over it.

He still hadn't come out yet. I was starting to think I'd scared him but good and he wasn't coming out for days again. So I went to that side of the bed and sat down on the floor and played my phone games that he's used to the music from.

After a while he got up, stretched, and sauntered out from under the headboard. Inside I was rejoicing mightily but I stayed calm outside and expressed my delight in less bouncy ways than I wanted to!

He knew something was up in the living room (how could he not, with all the noises I'd been making, bumping and unzipping and popping lids off storage boxes and so forth). He looked back to make sure I was coming too, and then slowly made his way into the living room to check out the new thing that I'd told him was a really fun thing that I enjoyed.

He's actually made slower journeys down the hall (when I got the big cat trees delivered, for example). He paused briefly when he saw the tree, and then went over to investigate it. (Whoo hoo! Investigation instead of hiding!)

Something is not right here.
This is very strange.

At first he was hesitant and very cautious, in case, I suppose, the tree was alive and might take offense at being sniffed.

The tree branches got thoroughly sniffed.

Then he got more confident, when no tree attack proved imminent, and went around and around, sniffing bits of the tree and the tree skirt as he went. Pippin loved to lie on the tree skirt and watch the world go around him. Unlike the rest of the house which has had a year and two months to "air out," these things have been packed away.

So I think part of Apricot's fascination was the ancient smell of another cat. A smell he's probably familiar with as a faint part of the house, but not a smell that's been very strong up till now.

(Yeah, when I was putting the tree up I found a small clump of underfur caught on the bottom branches of the tree from when Pippin was rubbing his back against the branches. I had to have a moment to collect myself at that point.)

What's in there?

Finally he got bold enough to see where the tree was keeping its legs. He poked his face down into the center hole of the tree skirt and peered around for a moment, seeing the metal structure the tree supports itself on.

The tree had been thoroughly investigated and deemed not-a-danger, so he left it alone and went about his normal morning routine ... I guess. I haven't been home enough during weekdays to know what his normal routine is. But he seemed quite content. 

He likes to be in the same room I am. (This is "cat" for "I like you.") I went into the kitchen for something or other and he followed, so I picked up a christmas cat toy that is in the kitchen and offered to play.

I didn't even realize he'd licked his nose
until I looked at the series of photos
I'd been taking. Apparently it was a
very quick lick.

So we played with the toy for a little while. 

The toy (it's a "J" shaped stuffed letter with a glittery stuffed ball attached to it) has a short funny tale attached. I got Apricot some more ear drops (remember he had that yeast infection that's a recurring thing? Well, it recurred) that were special anti-fungal only and had to be special-ordered from a mail pharmacy in Arizona called, appropriately enough, RoadRunner Pharmacy. 

When the box came, it was a large "one-size-ships-all" kind of box with a lot of packing material and a tiny bottle. I'd brought it in with everything else that day, and I'd heard something softly go jingle-jingle but couldn't figure out what I was carrying that would go "jingle-jingle." I had my phone at the top of my suspect list.

Nope. Turns out it wasn't the phone. The mail-order pharmacy had included this tiny Christmas-themed toy in the bottom of the box. Good thing I took the box and packing materials apart for recycling purposes or I would have tossed it out! The jingle bell was on the toy, but neither I nor Apricot appreciated it (since it was loud once it wasn't muffled by packing material) and I took it off the toy so we could play with it without wincing. 

The really funny part is that the toy was made by the pet company that my company bought last year! We get an extremely limited selection of toys from them in our company store every so often.

I got a grab on-camera!
And a blurry toy.

Well, so far so good with Christmas this year. I wonder how he'll take to me putting ornaments on the tree ...

PS. In case you are wondering how I plan to deal with Christmas + kittens, they don't come until the week after Christmas, and I plan to put all the Christmas stuff away the weekend before they come home!