Chicken Soup for the Soul_The Power of Forgiveness_101 Stories About How to Let Go and Change Your Life by Amy Newmark & Anthony Anderson

Author:Amy Newmark & Anthony Anderson [Newmark, Amy & Anderson, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Psychology
ISBN: 9781611599428
Goodreads: 21412111
Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul
Published: 2014-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

Convicted Feline

Tree decorating with cats. O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, your ornaments are history!

~Courtney VanSickle

“Ohhhh, Kobe, not again,” I moaned as I walked into my living room after a long day of work. My sweet cat Kobe had once again unwound all the Christmas lights from the tree and laid them in straight lines across the carpet. He sat among the strands and gazed at me proudly. How Kobe was able to accomplish this feat, and why, remained a mystery.

“Kobe,” I would sigh every time I re-strung the lights, “I love you, but you’re making so much work for me!”

These petty offenses, though, were trivial compared to what became known to our family as Kobe’s criminal “feline-y.”

Kobe was a Christmas kitty. I had adopted the tiny white ball of fluff at the age of eight weeks from a shelter on December twenty-first several years earlier.

“He’s the only survivor of the litter,” the manager had informed me. “His siblings all died from a flea infestation in a house whose occupants should never have owned pets.”

Named because he closely resembled the statuettes of the iconic Japanese white lucky cat, Kobe was the happiest and most affectionate kitten I had ever known. His purrs were so loud that a young neighbor nicknamed him “Motorhead.”

Immediately on his arrival in my home, Kobe made his bed under the Christmas tree on top of the gifts. During his second Christmas season, my mischievous little cat began his years-long habit of climbing up the tree and disassembling the lights. He also found my prized ornaments especially delectable.

Despite his eccentricities, Kobe was a beautiful, loving and healthy cat. I adored him.

A few weeks before Christmas one year, my elderly Aunt Fiona called.

“I’m sending you a little something I made for your tree,” Fiona said when she announced that she’d be flying in to spend Christmas with the family. Picturing a knitted ornament, I thanked her politely.

Aunt Fiona had left California many decades before, marrying a small-town doctor in the deep South. We all loved her and smiled at her fierce allegiance to proper Southern customs that were often at odds with our casual West Coast lifestyle of shorts and flip-flops.

When Fiona’s gift arrived a few days later, I was flabbergasted. She had hand-stitched an exquisite Christmas tree skirt. On its base of white felt, my aunt had sewn the Twelve Days of Christmas out of thousands of brilliantly colored beads and sequins. Each of the days was separated from the next, with literally Six Geese a-Laying and Seven Swans a-Swimming among the various sections.

“Oh, Aunt Fiona, this is gorgeous,” I gushed when I called to thank her. “It’s truly a work of art that belongs in a museum! It must have taken you months to create.”

“Well, honey, I’m glad you like it,” she replied. “I made one for your sister, too. I look forward to seeing them under your trees when I get there.”

Knowing Kobe’s fondness for gnawing on anything Christmas, I stored the tree skirt in a closet until shortly before Aunt Fiona arrived.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.