Man At Work

 Poor Frank.  He can't quite get the tree decorated to his liking.  He is constantly tweaking this, moving that, removing the other thing.  It's the same with the cloth at the base.  He seems to feel it needs adjustment on a daily basis.  A cat's work is never done.

Since "my" Christmas is still two weeks away, I finally got a start on the baking yesterday (those inedible pigs don't count).  Don't laugh.  I started with a batch of dog biscuits cut with a bone-shaped cutter for Bessie Anne and my son's dog, Smoke.  As they can't read, I feel this secret is safe.  When cutting out cookies, there's always that little blob left over and I baked that too.  Well away from the kitchen so she wouldn't suspect, I gave that trial blob to Bess.  What if these "bones" went the way of the pigs?  She crunched it up and licked up the crumbs.  (I think she's going to like her present!)

Frank and Pearl always send a present to Deb and Craig's cat, Clyde, and get gifts in return.  (Oh, come on!  We don't have any little Kids around except the furry kind.)  I did their shopping for them, and they seem to approve of the treats I picked out for Clyde.  I didn't open the shopping bag so Frank and Pearl didn't see that they're getting the same thing.  Shhh.

I've mentioned a prior dog, Dogie, and cat, Victor.  On a Christmas years past, Dogie received a bag of special treats and Victor was given a little Santa toy stuffed with catnip.  Unlike Bessie Anne, who immediately guts every stuffed toy she's ever had, Dogie took care of her toys and never destroyed a one.  It wasn't until after all the gifts were opened and we were cleaning up that we found the shreds and pieces of Victor's Santa under a table.  Was it jealousy?  Dogie evidently didn't feel that she needed to be so circumspect with Victor's toy.

Merry Christmas to all!