O Cat-mas Tree , vers 1.1

O Christmas tree, O Christmas Tree,
how lovely are your branches...
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
you give me lots of chances...
I bat your balls and bite your lights,
and , just for fun, I scale your heights...
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
you are my favorite cat toy !

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
I love your shady hide-out...
when I've been "bad", I'm very glad,
that Mom can't get behind you...
I pee in plants and scratch the couch...
then hide in you when Mom's a grouch,
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
I hate to see E-phi-pha-ny

Silent Night ? cat-mas carol #3

Si-lent night,
no-o cat fights...
yet, I fear,
one is near...
"thunk", the sound,of a
cat leap-ing down...
"whoosh", the sud-den "flight",
"crash", somethings down ...
now the growling
will st-art,
n-ow the growl-ing will start...

si-lent night, no
long-er in sight...
growling ,hiss
that was-n't a kiss...
"you took my catnip,
you blank-ty blank"
"li-ar, it's MI-NE, you
blank, blank ,blank, blank..."
"Die, you evil fat
hate-ful bitch"
"Eat shit and die,
you vile wretch"

vi-olent night,
no rest in sight, I
guess I'll get up and
stifle the fight ...
I open the door and to my tired ears,
nary a cat ,nor a sound ,do I hear,
all my house is at pe-ace
a-ll my house is at peace

it's almost light,
so much for night...
not much sleep,
so I creep...
out, to see what my kitties have wrought,
and what do I find ? Nothing's left that I bought,
just the debris and on the heep,
kitties are curled , fast asleep....

Sly Cat, Sneaky Pie [Good King Wenseslaus] Cat-mas carol #2

Sly cat, Sneaky Pie looked down,
from her perch, so lofty...
on the top shelf nested she,
on the oatmeal boxes...

She watched Creamer saunter past,
unaware of danger...
then she swooped down, steal-th-ly,to
catch the Creamer, un-a-ware...

Stealthy, stealthy Sneaky Pie,
as she creeps up closer...
blissful, naive Creamer cat,
never saw her coming...
suddenly, that rotten Tom,
leaps into the picture,
scatter-ing them both in fright, with
screams and growls and h-is-ses

Now , the cat fight's really on,
round and round they're racing,
yowling, screetching, mad as hell, no
prisoners there're taking...
Creamers' gone to "higher ground" ,
watching all the chaos...
Sneaky's calling Thomas names,
nice cats never m-en-tion ...

World War 6 is close at hand when
Sneaky screams at Thomas...
"Here comes Mom, you blank, blank, blank, she's
gon-na kick your butt now",
Sneaky leaps back up on high, hiding in her re-fuge...
Thomas, sulks and stalks away,
seeking to be-co-me "scarce"

Sneaky Pie binds up her wounds,
[ mostly injured pri-de],
plotting death and sweet revenge,
[Thomas cat WILL die..!].
As she yawns and stretches there,
sloth o'retakes her venom, to-
morrow is another day and
he can wait, it's na-p time

"Cat-a-Pan"[Cat-mas carol # 1]

"Gracie takes her long sharp claws and she shreds up anything,
she can create 'slaw' from plants,
hee,hee,hee,hee,heeeee,
Sneakie Pie on high,
as she watches Gracie slice and dice a-way, oh, my !"

"Sneaky stretches out her paw to join in in the may-ham,
as her claws come out to slash,
hiss,hiss,hiss,hiss,hisss,
Lucy makes a dash,
as she lands there with a crash, making junk out of all my cache"

"Enter "Mom", who's really mad, 'cause the cats have been, oh, so bad,
and she's lo-wer-ing the "boom",
scram, scram, scram ,scram, SCAT !
you e-vil rot-ten cats !
and the cats me-re-ly sm-irk back...[heee,heee]
(sung to the tune of "Pat-a-Pan")

"x" marks the spot...

...large ,heavy pieces of cardboard can be so useful when one is in a full-on cleaning/painting mode... J had been using just such a large piece to cover the wood floor in the "hall"[it's really a "box in the middle of my house that leads everywhere and is mostly trim{doors,built-in cupboards,closets}] while spackling, scraping and sanding the old[nasty lead-based painted] wood trim, prior to painting...there are 2 metal grates[furnace return vents] in the floor and since the sunny, warm weather wouldn't be here much longer, I wanted to paint them today,leaving 2 more for tomorrow...so in an effort to keep kitties from an intimate knowledge of the duct system,we decided to cover the whole area with the cardboard, marking 2 boxes where the grates "weren't",and putting a large "x" in each "box", to remind us both NOT to step there...all went well for hours, despite a couple of fancy steps to avoid the "x"s...then, when we were ready to return the now-painted and dry grates to their spots, what did we find , but Gracie, "Cat of Danger", making quite a "hammock" of one of the "boxes" on the cardboard...lucky for her, there was a good border around her box, or she would have been Gracie of the "cat"acombs[ducting system]...she wouldn't move and had to be pushed from her "spot"...now that the grates are back, she keeps eyeing the one that replaced her cardboard hammock...I can't wait to see where she will establish residency next...

...the last roses

...my roses are stunning...the Peace roses with their pink,yellow and cream, the Bonanza with it's peachy apricot...the fragile pinks of "Touch of Class" that fade to crimson edges, the deep reds and the surprise of snowy white...they like the autumnal light and cooler weather...it seems they always have an early flush in April or May, but the final grand flourish before the winter storms and cold weather dim their beauty, are always their crowning glory...I suppose I can only hope to echo them , as I enter the autumn of my years, as the pace slows, the light fades and all retreats inside against the cold and dark to come...may I have the grace to reach toward the fading light and bring beauty to the world as long as I can ,even as I prepare for the winter to come...

...heavy thoughts for All Saints/All Souls

...all we are or were , we leave behind, all is vanity, turning to dust...all that we truely have, we also leave, for we only have it to give away...the tighter we grip, the quicker it goes... or as a wise man once said, "I yam what I yam, and that's all that I yam", Popeye, the Sailorman [toot, toot]