I loved those candles!! Then I dropped one onto the asphalt tile floor and the fluid ate into the tile. Dad threw them all out. This was 1959. I still remember the candles fondly!!
And if the cats don’t get them, the kids will. What is The Woman thinking of?
We had ornaments like those, back in the days there weren’t any other kind. We didn’t have cats, and those ornaments were up high. This was in the days when cars didn’t have seatbelts.
Anything that even seems like it might be fragile stays in the box at my house. I think Mac and PC saw Pucky’s Purrfect Christmas tip about undecorating the tree because people like decorating.
In grammar school I begged my mom to let me bring an ornament much like the one in panel 2 to decorate our class tree….she let me….I proudly displayed it….walking home with it, probably 2 yards from home, I tripped and broke it…she never let on how she felt but I still feel bad 65 years later….
I still have my mom’s vintage Shiney Brite ornaments from the 1940’s — 1950’s but I haven’t felt safe putting them on the tree since I first got Jasper. Even though Jasper crossed the bridge 5 years ago, now my own hands are so shaky I don’t trust myself not to break them. I’ve got a tree topper similar to the one next to Elvis.
One of my horrifying moments was when one of those fragile glass balls fell off my tree and my golden retriever puppy picked it up. Thank God, she was a typical retriever and didn’t bite down. I ended up removing all the breakables that could be knocked off by her tail and replacing them with Styrofoam balls with silk thread coverings. The breakables I locked on by bending their hangers around the branches.
My area is under a tornado watch that lasts until 6:00 AM. So far two lines of storms have gone through with heavy rain and winds, but so far no warnings. I’ve heard that some areas to the south and west have had major damage. Asking the universe to calm those storms down. Stay safe, everybody!
So, one year when my girls were little, I’d tried the couple of years prior decorating the tree with all my glass ornaments and such and it was a tiring job trying to get those little hands to leave everything alone, not to mention my two dobes and our cat, Molly, at the time who was a climber…It was the year 101 Dalmations came out and Micky D’s was doing all the dogs in their happy meals. Well, two kids, two sets and we had them all! So that year, I decided instead of glass. I’d do the tree in Dalmations. It was actually pretty stunning all things considered, I wasn’t worried about breakage, the cat could knock them off the top and carry them around and I wasn’t yelling at her and the dogs didn’t make such a mess. It was great.
Never underestimate the value of a good catnip martini. Hamilton Rule #3.
When you are confronted with a problem, turning the brain off for a little while will usually clear your mind, and a solution might make an appearance. Or perhaps, I just like getting loaded.
Problem: how to solve the crime and not get killed. On second thought, how not to get killed and solve the crime – priorities after all.
You just know that Holly will break more ornaments from the human’s tree, and you know that Mittens wants to protect her. I have decided on my plan. For better or worse, this is going to end today.
I find a secluded area and stake out the tree. I am counting on Holly showing up at some point to play with the glass-thingys. Sure enough, here comes the little kitten that just wants to be “bad.”
As soon as she starts batting at the tree, I’m there. I leap from my hiding place and tackle her. The force of my tackle causes us to slide under the tree’s branches, and the racket attracts the dog. Perfect. Iko comes running into the room and tries to get me, but we are too far under the tree for her to reach me. The dog’s attempts to get at me are knocking more and more glass thingys off the tree. But, what is really important, the noise is drawing the humans into the room.
The humans arrive in time to see Iko methodically destroying the tree. While they grab the dog, I pick up the kitten by the scruff of the neck and dash off unseen. Next stop, Mittens’s office.
I reach her office but don’t bother knocking; I simply walk in and drop the hissing kitten in front of Mittens and her henchmice. One of the mice runs up and tries to stop me; I swat him aside. I’m through being Mr. Nice Cat.
“What’s all this Hamilton,” the God Mother asks very quietly, giving me a cold stare.
“This is me, saving your niece and your business at the same time,” I say.
Mittens looks at us and then behind us, expectantly.
In my family, we learned pretty quick to NOT put fragile (particularly the heirloom ones) ornaments on the tree, so long as there was at least one cat living in the house. Better to just not tempt fate, see. ;)
I have no fragile heirloom ornaments, only a set of five plastic “lacy-looking” bells with shiny (but worn) paint—red, green, blue, gold and silver. They were my childhood favorites and I suppose I’ll pass them along to my oldest nephew someday, though his wife would probably not allow such “tacky” things on their tree.
I had to spend an hour cleaning up all the glass shards of a lamp shade after one of my cats knocked over a lamp. It was my own fault. He slide off a willy-nilly pile of boxes I had lazily left in a corner next to the lamp. I used thick gloves, brooms and a vacuum cleaner. I found shards within a fifteen-foot radius. I had a nightmare about the cats finding glass in their paws, got up and vacuumed again in the middle of the night. It’s strictly plastic tree ornaments for me, even though they do not look as nice.
I think back in the day, you were expected to take a certain number of casualties no matter what, and so just had extra kids to “cover the spread” and accepted those glittery little fragmentation grenades as an acceptable risk.
When I was a kid, we had a set of plastic bells in various sizes, green, blue, red, and yellow, all the colors highly saturated. The plastic was clear, and filled with glitter. On a tree with lights they were gorgeous. My parents threw all that stuff out, along with a lot of other things I wish they had passed on to me. I hope my kids will at least keep the heirloom glass ornaments my wife brought, and the BCN ornaments.
Most of mine are the kind you get from a craft store that you paint, I had cookie cutters that were sold and used them to create ornaments with layers of glue that I painted, plastic balls, and a few character ones. Bought a ceramic snowman one year and found another on the ground that someone threw away. All kitty friendly.
Has John, the widower, checked in on any comics lately? Haven’t seen any posts from him since before Thanksgiving, when he was sad about his wife missing her favorite holiday. John, Are you there and ok?
deadheadzan almost 3 years ago
Elvis knows about fragile, fatal splinters….He is so very sensible as well as dignified!
tkstuber almost 3 years ago
I loved those candles!! Then I dropped one onto the asphalt tile floor and the fluid ate into the tile. Dad threw them all out. This was 1959. I still remember the candles fondly!!
Le'letha Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Elvis, I know you didn’t intend it that way, but you and your ears are incredibly cute in panel 3. Gold star for avoiding the flammable things.
Le'letha Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Antique glass is incredibly thin, thinner than today’s glass, but admittedly I only know this from MythBusters (where they promptly broke it).
GreasyOldTam almost 3 years ago
And if the cats don’t get them, the kids will. What is The Woman thinking of?
We had ornaments like those, back in the days there weren’t any other kind. We didn’t have cats, and those ornaments were up high. This was in the days when cars didn’t have seatbelts.
Susanna Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Anything that even seems like it might be fragile stays in the box at my house. I think Mac and PC saw Pucky’s Purrfect Christmas tip about undecorating the tree because people like decorating.
saobadao almost 3 years ago
In grammar school I begged my mom to let me bring an ornament much like the one in panel 2 to decorate our class tree….she let me….I proudly displayed it….walking home with it, probably 2 yards from home, I tripped and broke it…she never let on how she felt but I still feel bad 65 years later….
WelshRat Premium Member almost 3 years ago
When Elvis makes clear sense, the world is mad…
Aspen_Bell almost 3 years ago
Doomed, I tell you.
Sue Ellen almost 3 years ago
I still have my mom’s vintage Shiney Brite ornaments from the 1940’s — 1950’s but I haven’t felt safe putting them on the tree since I first got Jasper. Even though Jasper crossed the bridge 5 years ago, now my own hands are so shaky I don’t trust myself not to break them. I’ve got a tree topper similar to the one next to Elvis.
marilynnbyerly almost 3 years ago
One of my horrifying moments was when one of those fragile glass balls fell off my tree and my golden retriever puppy picked it up. Thank God, she was a typical retriever and didn’t bite down. I ended up removing all the breakables that could be knocked off by her tail and replacing them with Styrofoam balls with silk thread coverings. The breakables I locked on by bending their hangers around the branches.
face.less_b almost 3 years ago
Ahhh I miss the good ol’ days when we put real life candles on a dried out highly flammable conifer.
Esmeralda Anistasia almost 3 years ago
Our most precious ornaments are the ones handmade by little fingers, and the Borg Cube.
“We are the Borg. Enjoy your holidays. Resistance is futile.”
Robin Harwood almost 3 years ago
Don’t worry so much, Elvis. They’ll be fine.
in-dubio-pro-rainbow almost 3 years ago
Ornaments. Have a Kit Kat, Have a Break
FreyjaRN Premium Member almost 3 years ago
We had enough moves that the most fragile ornaments either broke or got lost.
Sue Ellen almost 3 years ago
My area is under a tornado watch that lasts until 6:00 AM. So far two lines of storms have gone through with heavy rain and winds, but so far no warnings. I’ve heard that some areas to the south and west have had major damage. Asking the universe to calm those storms down. Stay safe, everybody!
Kitty Katz almost 3 years ago
Meanwhile, Back on the Nile
Elvis-Anum: Time to put up the Yuletide decorations. Do we have any that survived last year’s Thwump?
Lupinium: Sorry. I just couldn’t resist those shiny ornaments.
Elvis-Anum: That’s alright. I think Tabith-Isis has a solution.
Tabith-Isis: Yes. We of the Feline Ladies League have gotten together to create a lovely Yuletide tapestry.
Puckmosis: It is indeed beautiful. But is it indeed Thwump proof?
Sophititi: Absolutely. We had our trained expert test it.
Puckmosis: Who was that?
Maat-Tilda: Our resident climbing expert.
Beatrixia: (From the top of the tapestry) I declare this tapestry safe for display!
Gent almost 3 years ago
Breakable things when four cats is around. When will you ever learns, hyoomans?
j_e_richards almost 3 years ago
When we got cats we started to use non breakable ornaments. Mostly sewn…it’s become a very fun tree
Tigrisan Premium Member almost 3 years ago
So, one year when my girls were little, I’d tried the couple of years prior decorating the tree with all my glass ornaments and such and it was a tiring job trying to get those little hands to leave everything alone, not to mention my two dobes and our cat, Molly, at the time who was a climber…It was the year 101 Dalmations came out and Micky D’s was doing all the dogs in their happy meals. Well, two kids, two sets and we had them all! So that year, I decided instead of glass. I’d do the tree in Dalmations. It was actually pretty stunning all things considered, I wasn’t worried about breakage, the cat could knock them off the top and carry them around and I wasn’t yelling at her and the dogs didn’t make such a mess. It was great.
rs0204 Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Chapter V – To Have & Have Not
Never underestimate the value of a good catnip martini. Hamilton Rule #3.
When you are confronted with a problem, turning the brain off for a little while will usually clear your mind, and a solution might make an appearance. Or perhaps, I just like getting loaded.
Problem: how to solve the crime and not get killed. On second thought, how not to get killed and solve the crime – priorities after all.
You just know that Holly will break more ornaments from the human’s tree, and you know that Mittens wants to protect her. I have decided on my plan. For better or worse, this is going to end today.
I find a secluded area and stake out the tree. I am counting on Holly showing up at some point to play with the glass-thingys. Sure enough, here comes the little kitten that just wants to be “bad.”
As soon as she starts batting at the tree, I’m there. I leap from my hiding place and tackle her. The force of my tackle causes us to slide under the tree’s branches, and the racket attracts the dog. Perfect. Iko comes running into the room and tries to get me, but we are too far under the tree for her to reach me. The dog’s attempts to get at me are knocking more and more glass thingys off the tree. But, what is really important, the noise is drawing the humans into the room.
The humans arrive in time to see Iko methodically destroying the tree. While they grab the dog, I pick up the kitten by the scruff of the neck and dash off unseen. Next stop, Mittens’s office.
I reach her office but don’t bother knocking; I simply walk in and drop the hissing kitten in front of Mittens and her henchmice. One of the mice runs up and tries to stop me; I swat him aside. I’m through being Mr. Nice Cat.
“What’s all this Hamilton,” the God Mother asks very quietly, giving me a cold stare.
“This is me, saving your niece and your business at the same time,” I say.
Mittens looks at us and then behind us, expectantly.
Continued
cat19632001 almost 3 years ago
I kind of expected to see Elvis wearing a firecat’s helmet (complete with accommodations for cat ears) in panel three.
ladykat almost 3 years ago
Elvis, it’s all good. Trust your Woman.
I’ve been on and off lately because my laptop keeps having conniption fits and insisting that I have no internet connection.
poulinskaya almost 3 years ago
My little tree-trashers are now 9 and 12. They jockey for the best warm sleeping spot under the tree and leave the rest of it alone.
Display almost 3 years ago
Ah, Noma Bubble Lites!
https://youtu.be/dOhbGnjVkNM
prrdh almost 3 years ago
A cat’s gotta do what a cat’s gotta do. Something that size and shape cries out for swatting.
scyphi26 almost 3 years ago
In my family, we learned pretty quick to NOT put fragile (particularly the heirloom ones) ornaments on the tree, so long as there was at least one cat living in the house. Better to just not tempt fate, see. ;)
anomalous4 almost 3 years ago
OT: TK update
Indy & Dodger’s going home has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 14, so we get enjoy a few more days of Dodger’s growling:
https://youtu.be/WTv2bVMmvKw
Teto85 Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Hey!!!! We have those bubble lights. A few years ago they made a comeback. We bought a new set as well.
Catmom almost 3 years ago
I have no fragile heirloom ornaments, only a set of five plastic “lacy-looking” bells with shiny (but worn) paint—red, green, blue, gold and silver. They were my childhood favorites and I suppose I’ll pass them along to my oldest nephew someday, though his wife would probably not allow such “tacky” things on their tree.
mistercatworks almost 3 years ago
I had to spend an hour cleaning up all the glass shards of a lamp shade after one of my cats knocked over a lamp. It was my own fault. He slide off a willy-nilly pile of boxes I had lazily left in a corner next to the lamp. I used thick gloves, brooms and a vacuum cleaner. I found shards within a fifteen-foot radius. I had a nightmare about the cats finding glass in their paws, got up and vacuumed again in the middle of the night. It’s strictly plastic tree ornaments for me, even though they do not look as nice.
The Wolf In Your Midst almost 3 years ago
I think back in the day, you were expected to take a certain number of casualties no matter what, and so just had extra kids to “cover the spread” and accepted those glittery little fragmentation grenades as an acceptable risk.
cat19632001 almost 3 years ago
I think the info in panels two and three should be investigated by the MouseMythBusters.
scaeva Premium Member almost 3 years ago
When I was a kid, we had a set of plastic bells in various sizes, green, blue, red, and yellow, all the colors highly saturated. The plastic was clear, and filled with glitter. On a tree with lights they were gorgeous. My parents threw all that stuff out, along with a lot of other things I wish they had passed on to me. I hope my kids will at least keep the heirloom glass ornaments my wife brought, and the BCN ornaments.
daswaff almost 3 years ago
Safety 1st, Elvis ! It takes seconds for Xmas disaster!! “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr6b9b8FYKk” xmas tree fire with a timer.
valeries Premium Member almost 3 years ago
It came! It came! It came!
Love my Georgia Dunn original Breaking Cat News comic strip!
mistercatworks almost 3 years ago
Candy canes are one of the safer ornaments, if you can keep them on the tree until Christmas Day. :)
CatherinePrickett almost 3 years ago
Ah yes, bubble lights. They’re really pretty, though.
anomalous4 almost 3 years ago
OT: The things some people put on top of their Xmas trees…
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/a3/30/2ca3308bb7666e02e13b52fe7a24a708.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4a/68/00/4a6800c547b408d5b647ad979577c136.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dc/25/ae/dc25ae2242fbf409b8148a4d75e4899f.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/69/1d/7b/691d7bfff55a4c9154d46adb5a303025.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/2c/35/a82c35f1a6cec2a53b6462ad8a203a82.jpg
metagalaxy1970 almost 3 years ago
Most of mine are the kind you get from a craft store that you paint, I had cookie cutters that were sold and used them to create ornaments with layers of glue that I painted, plastic balls, and a few character ones. Bought a ceramic snowman one year and found another on the ground that someone threw away. All kitty friendly.
willie_mctell almost 3 years ago
Wow, bubble lights.
ChrisTrey almost 3 years ago
I swear that we had that same tall, pointed tree topper – glass of course – when I was a kid (in panel 2).
crazeekatlady almost 3 years ago
Has John, the widower, checked in on any comics lately? Haven’t seen any posts from him since before Thanksgiving, when he was sad about his wife missing her favorite holiday. John, Are you there and ok?
lsnielson almost 3 years ago
Our cat has been good at leaving the ornaments alone. He just sleeps under the tree.