Let the yowling begin

You might notice that there are not decorations or danglies on the bottom 2 feet of our tree. No, we don't have a toddler in the house... We have a cat who misses the great outdoors and a dog with a big tail.

The cat is the biggest problem. This evening, he was sleeping upstairs during the tree decorating and didn't eve notice it was there when he came down. He was sitting on my lap at bedtime and Alicia unhooked the lights and they clanked together and he sprang off my lap and ran across the living room to the tree. He instantly remembered that sound.

He walked around the tree several times and then sat next to the trunk and began his annual yowling. It sounds like that wolf in Jack London's books.

And then begins the climbing and shaking of the tree to make the pretty sounds that beautiful ornaments and lights make when they clank together repeatedly.

We usually put the tree as far into the corner as possible and that really gives him a place to yowl from, but this year, since the entry way is so open and has the grand new tile, the tree is more out in the middle, so he doesn't have a specific corner. As near as I can tell from the shaking and wobbling of the tree, we are going to maintain our post in the center of the tree, near the stump. It isn't even a real tree - it is plastic. And sitting under a plastic tree and yowling for the great outdoors is just silly and kind of embarrassing.

At least when we do get toddlers in the house, we will have the no ornaments on the bottom decorating pattern down pat. I suppose at some point we will have to wire it to the ceiling. I seem to remember that tactic from somewhere in my past... (silver tree, very expensive purple balls??? flying off the bookcase in Billings? )