Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for December 24, 2022

Looks like old mag’s got a new crown. Nice!

Aw, a peaceable kingdom!

and a shout . . . I mean, a chipmunk and a squirrel and even a couple of birds on the “bird feeder.”

So much easier to appreciate the raccoons when you know Goldie isn’t outside fighting with them, right, Woman?

I love Thimblefist and his orange. XD

And I see everyone in their pajamas in panel 1!

Looks like everyone on BCN is enjoying the sunset! We had a nice sunset today but after the sun went down it got cold, right now we are falling through the 30s but know most of the rest of y’all are having much colder weather than the SunCoast of Florida where there will be a freeze so the only people who are really nervous are the farmerss, many who have already took on a lot of damage thanks to Ian so I hope it stays just warm enough so that they can salvage what they can whther it be citrus, tomatoes, cucumbers, gladiolus (SW FL and the suncoast was once the gladiolis capitol of the world before we transformed farms and citrus groves into subdivisions) and even tropical fish. I hope everyone has a peaceful and safe Christmas Eve. It does feel like Christmas here, we even have the heater running on full blast, hopefully we do not have rotating blackouts, they often make a visit when temps drop into the 20s statewide and the grid gets opushed to the limit.

When you go to bed, remember to listen for sleigh bells as Father Christmas does his rounds. I’ll just be waiting for those d@mned ghosts.

I don’t see Louie. Maybe he is waiting until everyone else leaves so he doesn’t get startled.

Looks like all the folks are ready for Christmas and have come to celebrate the Season of Giving!

Love the kittens conked out to wait for Santa Paws!

Is that a hedge hog helping Homestyle with the popcorn chain?

Oh, dear… there’s not much left for the birds since the raccoons took almost everything. Or am I misreading it somehow?

Raccbells ring, are you listening? In the glades, fists are glistening…

Not just raccoons, but a whole family of them!

Merry Christmas to all.

It’s all fun and games until the cats join the party and yell “Tiiim-puuurrr!!!” when they fell the tree…then it’s: “Well, here’s another fine Christ-mess you’ve gotten us into!”

Awww this really warms the heart. A nice way to ease into christmas.

A lot of sweet Kitty Loaves (Loafs?) in Panel 1! :-)

Months ago, saw first time a huge raccoon up on deck’s railing. I turn on light thinking he’d be scared and jump down making a thud and run away. He very gently came off railing without a sound.

All is calm. All are fed.

The one ‘improvement’ I wish GoComics would have made when they were asking on their survey and then tried implementing, was to be able to click the comic and have it pop open over the comics but nice and big so I could really see all the details. I know I can plus or minus the page size, but I’m an old fusspot and being able to click it and have it nice and big would be so much nicer. Anyway, a lovely strip this morning. One to warm my heart on this four degree morn…

I spy Homestyle and Thimblefist! Hello, old friends.

All six (count ‘em) kitties peacefully coexisting on the couch.

Hope everyone in The Orb has a safe, warm and wonderful Christmas weekend!

Yesterday I commented about how Mags and her crew might show up to pilfer the goodies from the tree … but I would like to amend that to it looks as if they have the holiday spirit, and are sharing!

John Lennon: Happy Xmas

And so this is Christmas

Thanks to Georgia Dunn

There is a beautiful picture

Of love for everyone!

…….

Yes, now it is Christmas!

We like to have fun

Both humans and animals!

God Bless everyone!

…….

Have a very merry Christmas!

And a happy New Year!

Time for new beginnings

With love and good cheer!

…….

And so this is Christmas (For all of us)

For great and for small! (We all love it!)

Let’s make it a better world!

For one and for all!

…….

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

In a world where Christmas music starts right after Halloween and elves come down from the North Pole in mid-November, I have retained one tradition for myself: I do not, at least intentionally, listen to “Silent Night” until Christmas Eve.

Usually this rendition: https://youtu.be/3FqgYPWRDFs

Merry Christmas, everyone. I’m off to be dumbfounded by people who wait until the last minute to take a picture with Santa and are surprised to find a line of other people who also waited. Fortunately, by about 3:00 or so, it will die down. (We are open until 6:00.)

Peanuts hanging from a festive wire

Peace reigns high with friends and foes

Thimby’s carols being sung like heck fire

So folks will feel them head-to-toe

Everybody knows a Robber Mouse brings asiago

Helps to give the popcorn bite

Shiny ruffles ’round the neck of a crow

Will help to keep him warm tonight

We know that tree is People’s way

To share lots of treats and goodies for chicks and jays

And every kid and cat is gonna spy

To see the creatures’ joy as they come by

And so I’m offering this simple phrasein some slightly different words

Although it’s been said many times, many ways

Berry Christmas to birds

(And a poppy new year)

- Mel Torme / Robert Wells – The Christmas Song

But where are the boy and girl? If they are like my grandkids they would love to be watching also.

Merry Christmas to you and Happy Holidays if you embrace other traditions. I do truly believe the Orb is a group of friends. Embrace your cats this weekend, and remember broken Christmas cookies have no calories!

As we prepare to celebrate Holmes’s first Christmas, the personality and attributes of our newest family member are becoming more fleshed out.

He is definitely not over a year old, and due to his feral beginnings, he will not let you pick him up. However, he will let you pet him, and he will purr if you approach him slowly. He will snuggle with Marie but is skeptical of men. Mac and I have a greater challenge petting him, but eventually, he does welcome our attention.

Holmes’s curiosity has no off-switch; from groceries coming into the house to me changing the furnace filter, he has to be involved. Whether by touching and sniffing every bag brought in or climbing into the furnace to see how it works. Furthermore, he pushes EVERYTHING off the table! His persistent and ongoing experiments with gravity can be loud and disruptive; place mats, mail, or vacuum-sealed chocolate chip cookies from Waukegan, IL., it does not matter. He has noted that they all fall at 9.8 meters per second squared.

He plays with Belle and Hamilton every day. However, Holly Bear does not like his attention, and Mittens gives him a withering glare if he approaches.

In the evening, you hear Hamilton, Belle, and Holmes running through the house. When they run up and down the second-floor hallway, it sounds like a herd of buffalo stampeding. He is happy and adapting well to his new forever family. With the below-zero weather we have been having, I worry about his former feral community somewhere in St. Louis. I realize you can’t save every cat, and I am glad random chance has brought Holmes to us.

Marie is home from the Hospital after yet another setback, the kids are home from school, and we have given a home to a kitten in need. It hasn’t been a great year, not by a long shot. But, it has had its moments of joy—Merry Christmas to everyone reading this post, and a happy, healthy, and safe new year.

A very Merry Christmas Eve to all of you from me, Smudge the Judge and the Marshmallow Mouse (both of whom are miffed because I will not let them out in this weather!)

Would that be the Star of Second Chances up in the sky?

OT: Your present – Part III

We put out cat food for our raccoons and this time of year, nuts, berries and fruits also!

I knew the raccoons would get involved! Thimblefist looks the happiest with that orange slice. Nobody’s going for the cranberries, though. Can’t say I blame them.

Talk about you unicorn sentiments. Birds would not be present with that many other critters hanging around, especially raccoons. Raccoons are omnivores that like an easy meal, and birds are on their menu.

Such a marvelous tree! I will cherish this moment forever.

So lovely!

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Alice-Ata: On behalf of my colleagues, I would like to thank all of you for this wonderful surprise.

Queen Catshepsut the Golden: This is a major accomplishment. Obtaining a huge supply of cheese and surprising the Royal Procurers.

Violet-Ifa: Thomios has graciously allowed us to use the kitchen to prepare our signature meal. Pizza!

Puckmosis: We thank you. It’s a good thing Trevor-Hotep’s pizza trees came into bloom at just the right time.

Agnes-Ata: And what would a dinner be without dessert? After much deliberation, we have created a Golden cheesecake.

Elvis-Anum: What more needs to be said? Happy Yuletide and Thank You For Being a Friend!

Thimblefist!

If I put out a bird feeder tree it would be the mule deer raiding it, and they’d be welcome.

Christmas will be a non-event this year. Too many family members are sick with Flu or the dreaded Covid. Hoping to see the Grands for a little while this evening. May the Orb have a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Btw, I’ve forgotten: what is the name of the raven? (Or is it a crow?)

I forget do the chipmunk and squirrel have names?

I want to wish the Orb a very Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you my celebrate, from me and “my three sons”—Tucker Lovesponge, Ozzy Tiberius, and Inky Elvis! Treasure your family and your pets, past and present. May you and all your loved ones, human and animal, stay warm and safe and enjoy lots of presents and goodies, while remembering that there’s no material possession that can take the place of love. I love you all, and I hope we can continue to enjoy BCN and share our thoughts and stories for many years to come!

I do not remember seeing the crow with the collar before today.

Here in Colorado the temperatures are finally above 0. We have a haven for birds, squirrels, etc. The birds nest in the rafters of our shed, and we’ve been keeping the feeders and the heated birdbath full through this latest front. Merry Christmas to all!

That second panel is DEMANDING to become a mug! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Reload really early in the morning then watch at sunrise so the birds will have a chance. It is okay the kids are going to be up anyway.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

I love how she incorporates some rarely seen friends into the holidays. :D

An entire flock of trash pandas!

Maybe it’s my eyes – I’ve looked closely at and around the bird-feeder tree, and I just do not see any strands of the Cereal-Os that the Kiddies were making.

Do you think someone ate it before it made it to the tree?

Most resourceful of all animals who’ve adapted to human occupied territory.

Have the three wise rodents shown up yet?

A headline that could only happen at Christmas.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/24/pub-crawling-santas-get-armoured-vehicle-stuck-in-cornish-hedge

Is Gutter (the raccoon with the eye patch) holding an apple slice or a pine cone stuffed with peanut butter?

Sacramento has been cloudy/foggy today. The barometer is falling, and rain (California Central Valley snow) is expected for the next week or so. We seldom get cold enough for the real stuff on the future Inland Sea.

I do love the Posadas de las mapaches.

The people seem happy to see the racoons. I don’t think they mind sharing their tree with them. and remember how Homestyle and Thimblefist helped to rescue Beatrix.

I wrote this for my students many Christmases ago. Thought I’d share it here:

The Christmas Eve Flightby Suellen

Can you hear those bells ringing and jingling so high

Up in the star speckled Christmas Eve sky?

It must be Old Santa with a sleigh full of toys

On his way to the homes of the good girls and boys.

His reindeer will guide him on his ‘round-the world’ flight

Through the dark and the snow of this cold winter’s night.

With a ho ho ho

And a ha ha ha

And a ho ho ha ha he

Now away we go over frozen snow

As merry as we can be

Now awy we go over frozen snow

As the deer run fast and free

For to boys and girls

We carry the toys

That will fill their hearts with glee!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

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(The vile racoons are stealing the tree!)

I post this to my wall every holiday, but I don’t think I’ve ever posted it here…Hope everyone had a safe holiday. Hope all the kids will soon be tucked in bed, safe and sound. Hope all the news was good, or at least not too bad. Hope all who were hungry were fed, all who were lonely were made to feel at home, and all who were lost were found. Hope is all we have sometimes…but hope plus action moves mountains! Find what you can do to improve the world AND DO IT!

If they can reach it, the raccoons will clear it out before the birds.

I try to maintain a little holiday spirit. Yesterday I shared my lunch of “supermarket sushi” with Colette as she sat on the hood of my car. Later, Raz got a portion of Hawaiian Fried Rice (the shrimp portion) after dinner.

Today I’m going out to try to find some Christmas. Last year, I did not even hear a single Christmas carol. Being a loner is OK but you need to stay in touch. :)