The mad Christmas 'apple' dash.......

Putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend reminded me of how all the cats reacted during this time of year. We quickly learnt that having a real tree when you have kittens is not such a good idea! Finding a cat half way up a tree clinging for dear life to a branch, while pine needles rain down onto the carpet caused total mayhem. We took to tying the tree to a shut door handle each year to stop the inevitable teetering of the tree, as 3 cats chased each other round and round, and in and out of, the carefully wrapped presents. Jonesy, as ever, was particularly interested in the decorations on the tree. Every day, on returning home from work, we would find many of the lower tree decorations scattered around the room. In particular, Jonesy loved some 'apple' decorations we had. They were the size of a ping pong ball, and made of some light polystyrene painted red, with two small gold leaves attached. These were obviously very easy for a cat to bap around, and made a satisfying clunk when they hit a wall. Jonesy would trot around, holding the apple in his mouth by a leaf, once he managed to get one off the tree. From time to time he would drop the apple and whack it with his paw, and then race around chasing it. Many a time my husband and I would end up flat on our stomachs trying to fish an 'apple' out from under the tv, or sideboard, or sofa, with some spatula or wooden spoon! It got to the stage where he would sit patiently, wherever the apple had disappeared to, and meow for one of us to fiddle for ages attempting to get the 'apple' out. Funny enough neither of the girls were interested in this game! Over the years we kept the 'apples' out of the decoration box so Jonesy could play with them all year round. Even up to last year I would be able to go to the drawer where it was kept, and hold it up to Jonesy while saying 'apple Jonesy....do you want to play with the apple'? He would perk up and meow, so that I would roll it across the floor towards him. There would follow 10 or 15 minutes of frantic bashing of apple, and one mad excited cat racing around the whole ground floor of the house! If you were not fast enough to leap out of the way you were in danger of getting hit by a flying decoration! It was certainly a great way of wearing out a cat if he was bored!  I still have one of the battered 'apples'in a drawer.....the girls don't play with it, but I am keeping it for now as it reminds me of Jonesy's mad apple dashes.......