🐈The Cat That Climbed the Christmas Tree

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The one who called me “Mom” second had a favorite Christmas book.
It was The Cat That Climbed the Christmas Tree by Susanne Santoro Whayne, one of the beloved Little Golden Books.

She loved the story of Benny, the yellow kitten, and his first Christmas.
So it was funny when she called to tell me that Remy, her solid black rescue cat, liked to jump into the Christmas tree… and this was proving to be a problem. She’d spent much of her childhood hoping for a yellow cat like Benny to jump into her Christmas tree. So close on that dream and yet not what she imagined the dream to be.

Benny, the kitten in the story, is experiencing his very first Christmas.
The tree becomes irresistible to him, so he climbs it.

On the way up, he meets a fuzzy reindeer, a velvet mouse, and a musical bird (Ornaments, of course.) When he reaches the top, the Christmas angel gently sends him back down the tree on a sled ornament.

No ornaments break.
No tree falls over.
Such a lovely story.

Then came Remy.

Since I'd had warning from our conversations and the adorable photographic evidence of Remy tucked in my daughter’s tree, I tried to prepare for this sweet visitor.  

We spread a blanket under our tree, just in case something fell.
We left the most precious breakable ornaments boxed up.
We hung the unbreakable ones low.
We congratulated ourselves on being proactive.

And we admired sweet Remy, perched politely on the mantel beside the tree.
What a darling little…

And then she launched herself into the tree, and took up residence among the branches.

The mantel, it turns out, was the perfect springboard. Since the tree was already decorated, we decided moving it wasn’t an option.

We spent that Christmas fishing Remy out of the tree and trying (unsuccessfully) to block her launch pad.
Remy outsmarted us.
The tree survived.
No broken ornaments.
A Christmas miracle.

I’d spent years avoiding fostering kittens during the holidays because I didn’t want to teach them to climb the tree. Now, I’m not sure that was the right tactic, especially since watching Remy in the tree was part documentary on curiosity, and part comedy show.

Her curiosity, like Benny’s, made her climb higher than she meant to, just like we do.

Ever reach for something shiny; success, approval, the picture-perfect holiday and find yourself tangled in what you’ve done?

What if, instead of shaming ourselves in those moments, we took a lesson from the angel at the top of the tree? What if we righted ourselves and climbed back down safely, without losing the joy that made us climb in the first place?

It won’t stop us (or the cats) from climbing the tree again, but maybe we’ll be more open to learning from it.

Sometimes curiosity leads us higher than we meant to climb.
Grace doesn’t scold us for it; it simply helps us find our way back down.

I’ll be cheering you on and gathering things to block the mantel before Remy’s visit. 🎄

Here’s the Amazon link for  The Cat That Climbed the Christmas Tree  (Affiliate link)

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