Hi everyone, Denver from Devon here.
Well, I don't know about you, but the last few months have been really weird. Mum has been home a lot more. She started off job hunting as normal, then suddenly not able to do as much, making a noise on the doorstep every week at the same time with her drum (and the neighbours were joining in too! Madness), singing (yowling more like) while going to her Church thing on the laptop (including showing me off to everyone at one service!) then suddenly getting a job without so much of the job hunt effort including interviews on the laptop and yours truly firmly put out of the room while this was going on (is it my fault that I want to see what she is doing and we all know the best way to do that is to walk over the keyboard, and show your "upright tail" bottom end first to the camera?).
Also, really strange - the Tree has gone up early for this Christmas lark that you humans like to celebrate. It's not normally up until about 2 weeks before the day all the wrapping paper messes up the lounge and there's (if you are very lucky) a lick of cream (mmmmm!) left over in the pot from the dessert, but it's gone up a good 2 and a half weeks earlier. I know some of you like "helping" out with the decorations (see "I'm Climbing up the Christmas Tree neoow" on a well-known human video platform for some friends who really know how to help, with a funny song).
I don't normally take much interest in the Tree - it's way too small to climb (I know it would just fall on me), and the end of the branches are really funny - they are all different colours at different times when it is plugged in, thanks to some funny white whisker style clumps on each branch (Mum calls it a fibre optic Tree. I thought fibre helped you use the litter tray better.........) But looking at the Tree has got me thinking (whoa, steady there Denver, you'll be needing to take an extra nap if you're not careful) about something which I think might be puuuurtinent to this frankly crazy year - suppose we all think of ourselves as just one of those white whisker thingies? Just one on its own doesn't make much of a show, it's true. But put a lot of them together, working together and you get a lovely, colourful and very cheery display. If we all try and do that this Christmas (and indeed in the future) to support others, I think this crazy year will not have been in vain.
A lot of nuzzles and purrs to you all (and best wishes from my Mum, Helen.)
Denver.
"Cats make one of the most satisfying sounds in the world: they purr ...
A purring cat is a form of high praise, like a gold star on a test paper. It is reinforcement of something we would all like to believe about ourselves - that we are nice."
Roger A Caras