I have a square of red Christmas fabric, and Tubby shall sport a bandanna on Christmas day. Santa shall indeed remember him with a new toy under the tree as well. Yes, I am familiar with the stuffing-less dog toys. What I should have done was simply send you all of Tubby's toys, because the squeakers and grunters get ripped out first, and then he does with the stuffing what Digby does with tinsels. The household floors have looked like snow scenes lately.

I have little gifts for all my grand-dogs and cats as well. My daughter's big, old ridgeback loves to unwrap presents. He skins his lips back and gently pulls at the paper until it's free. He actually does a better job at neatly unwrapping a gift than most humans. He not only unwraps his own gifts, but gladly joins any human nearby in opening their gifts, too.

The Christmas meal also means a special plate of goodies for all the household pets, as well as extra rations for my chickens, and all the wildlings get suet and cracked corn.

Opie esp loves wearing a sticky-bow on the top of his head Christmas day and biting at least one of his human cousins. Opie has,from kittenhood,stuck right in the middle of the gatherings. Chuck on the other hand hates it and plunks his fat arse in the middle of the coat-bed and hisses at all who enter his bedroom.

Midnight likes to sleep on the treeskirt, but leaves ornaments alone. She has a couple of dozen fur mice which get carried to to her feeding mat, new ones are ignored. She does not like visitors and will disappear in the bedroom underneath the bed. No extra food, she is picky and since I don't want to spend the holiday at the ER, no decorations of any kind on her.

Sassi will be going to the beauty shop on Tuesday for
her haircut and pedicure. No doubt she will arrive home
with a festive bow and or scarf.
She will get presents under the tree and to tell the truth,
Katrina bought her toys today for Christmas and Sassi has
already charmed 2 gifts from Katrina's stash.

I just got the tree up yesterday and Sassi has sniffed all
ornaments within reach and I hope she doesn't eat any of them.
If she doesn't it will be a first because that little
bundle of fur will eat anything.

Sassi loves everyone and loves a party so she will be right in the middle of it.
We don't do clothes except for a sweater if she goes outside.

I had at one time nine indoor/outdoor cats and two 40+ lb. dogs with long tails, and there was a Christmas tree and everything worked out reasonably well, Smokey liked to sleep on the tree-skirt, and a few ornaments got batted once in a while, the dog's tails re-distributed the tinsel, so years following I did not use it.
Now I have Jasmyn (and three other kitties), I don't have one decoration up yet! I may take out the hand-blown glass tree-ornament and hang it from the ceiling fan.

Yes, our animals get toys and treats. They have stockings. Jessie the dog is in dire need of new Nylabones [he's chewed them into shives] so he is getting two of them, liver and chicken, a nice hard rubber ball and a new Kong Extreme. His current Kong is finally showing wear. It was a hand-me-down from Pinky and is well over ten years old. The upstairs cats, aka The Bachelors and the rest of the cats have seperate stockings. They have a big bag of catnip, which I'll make into some nice cotton/muslin bags later, superballs and a mouse or two. The best treat for all of them is sharing the turkey. They all love it, even my pickiest Sammie will eat a bit.

Back in Detroit I used to take Jack to the pet store every year to have his picture taken with Santa. Around here there aren't even pet toys or treats available. Jack will be having his Christmas bath in a day or two and will be getting a chewy bone for Christmas(purchased on a trip to Guatemala City last month). No gifts (or baths!)for the cats, but they will all get some of the turkey.

The cats seem to think that water flavored with fir trunk is the tastiest water ever, no matter how recently I've changed their official water. And I am likely to dollop out an extra bit of canned salmon and sour cream. And whichever empty box they favor, I'll leave it around for a few days of fun. Other than that, I'm pretty much a scrooge.

I bought the kitty mongrels balls with bells and stuffed mice they can pick up and knock around. I will be so so glad to get the tree down. Every day, at least twice a day, I have to un-rearrange their rearranging. I almost have them out of the tree totally. Ugh! They have a stocking on the tree, but they think that gives them the ok to climb it. ;)

Ain't I just the Scrooge? We're boarding our dogs (too stressful for Izzy to travel when she's injured, we're better off leaving her somewhere calm until she's recovered) and leaving our cat with a house-sitter. We didn't buy them a thing, but Izzy was thrilled when I gave her the cardboard tubes from three rolls of wrapping paper.

Our holiday decorations consist of garlands, wreaths and bows, and the animals mostly stay out of them (though the pheasant feathers in the garland on the mantle is a temptation to both Izzy and Kotie.

Even at my parents' I bet I'll be seeing less of their dogs than usual this Christmas. My sister is having her baby any day now, we'll be babysitting her 3 and 1.5 year olds, and asking the dogs to be as low-key as possible under the circumstances...