Why is it that anytime something new arrives in your home, the cat claims it as hers? You unpack a box from Amazon and the cat takes it over. You bring in a bag of groceries and the cat climbs inside to take inventory. A new sofa is delivered and the cats morph into an investigation team. And if you like to decorate for the season, I’ll bet your cats want to help you with that too.
I decorated our house last week and Lily and Sophie are still checking out all of the new sights, scents, textures, and even flavors. Oh yes, they have to take a bite. For our girls, it’s part of their routine. If they like it, they might curl up with it; if they don’t, they might 
try destroying it.
And they’re fussy about where I put things, too. I can’t tell you how many decorations have ended up on the floor or in someone’s gift bag.
Each cat’s different. They have different degrees of curiosity and different tastes. While Lily might play with a ribbon or a fluffy bow on a package, Sophie has a serious addiction problem to metallic bows and pieces of string, rattan, and ribbon. We cannot use bows or ribbons 
on packages in this household because of Sophie. Have you ever seen the results of a cat nibbling on metallic Christmas bows? It’s a bloody mess, I’ll tell you. Lily likes to chew on plastic—tape, bubble wrap, and such. This year she tried to devour a decorative pot of artificial greenery. I consider that the cats’ way of helping me decide where to put things.
Well, here’s where I put some things. The artificial greenery is going outside and I gave all of my bows and ribbon away.
At least our girls aren’t inclined to climb the Christmas tree—not yet, anyway.
