My mother always insisted on setting an extra place at the Christmas table “just in case someone needs a home on Christmas”, and made sure to cook extra portions for whoever might drop by unannounced. I know of several other families who practice this and I carry on the tradition. This practice of never being alone on Christmas is something that I take to heart. I don’t care whether I end up alone during New Year’s Eve or Easter, but Christmas is something very special to me and the ultimate family holiday.
Over the years I have extended this life philosophy to animals, and ever since moving to Berlin and becoming a cat sitter, I accept cat sitting over the holidays. The animals don’t understand Christmas and hate New Year’s Eve, but they do understand that their family has left them for a while, and I make it a point to make up for the absence in one way or another, especially for the senior citicats.
This year there is a twist to the story and instead of visiting the various feline clients around town, we have a holiday visitor. Meet Lady Tiffy, 15 years old and also from the Berlin Animal Shelter but has been living with her foster family since 2017. She is my guest blogger until January 2, so please extend the warm welcome to her.
Hi Folks!
This is Tiffy taking over the cat blog for a few days. I have been relocated to a holiday home while my humans go on a well-deserved vacation. I am a bit miffed that I couldn’t travel with them, and am not used to being transported or repotted to another home with humans I don’t know or have never met, but this one is acceptable. It was either living with a friendly stranger or a metal box in the animal shelter, which is a no-brainer decision.
I arrived last Sunday afternoon and was initially confined to a room all to myself. It was pretty cool though, because it has loads to places to hide, which is what I did for the first three hours. But I have my own kitty litter, three beds to choose from, and my regular food, with a list of instructions what I get when. I am not fussy at all, just require renal food for my kidney issues, my blood pressure medicine, chunks of raw meat for lunch, and herbal tea.
I only met the two other feline residents in the evening when I demanded to be released from the bedroom to explore the rest of the house. That is when I met Cherry and Lolita for the first time.
Crap.
I am not used to living with other felines, or shall we say, got used to being the centre of attention. Since I am the oldest of the three and the newcomer, by cat law I am automatically the Alpha cat, and don’t give a rat’s ass who lives here. So I hissed, growled and shouted to get everyone out of my way, the living room and sofa were going to be mine.
Well, things didn’t quite go as planned. Lolita, who is half blind and half deaf, jumped on the sofa, stared at me while I threw my tantrum, snorted at me and flopped down to sleep. She didn’t even give me the dignity of a fight! Then I met Cherry, who just stared at me as though I had five heads and a neon purple jacket on, and said “Dude, what is your problem? Just chill”. Conclusion, hissyfits are not the way to make friends around here.
The first night was peaceful and I began my day by greeting humans with polite and friendly meows. Lolita and Cherry were already at the breakfast table so I hissed and growled at them in greeting. No response from Lolita, who was halfway to Lalaland again, and Cherry decided to teach me how friendship works. She followed me around the house, and kept me company in my room, to the extent that she took a nap in my travel box! My Dad put a t-shirt of his in there as my comfort blanket but now it smells of Cherry.
Stay tuned on this blog for more entries.
Tah Tah Dahlings,
Tiffy
FrogDiva Thoughts 