(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Caturday Pootie Diary: Leave the tricks and take the treats [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-28 “Oh!” I exclaimed, nearly tripping on Freddie. “I didn’t see you there!” “You’ve been very busy ignoring me,” he observed. I snorted. “Only the first part of that was true,” I said. I walked to the sink and washed my hands. Freddie followed me and sat behind me again. “Are you trying to get stepped on?” I wondered. “I’m trying to figure out what you’re doing.” I looked over at the stove and then back at him. “Just making some treats for Halloween,” I said. A gentle reminder of how we do things: 🐱🐶🐦 Do not troll the diary. If you hate pootie diaries, leave now. No harm, no foul. Please do share pics of your fur kids! If you have health/behavior issues with your pets, feel free to bring it to the community. Pooties are cats; Woozles are dogs. Birds... are birds! Peeps are people. Whatever happens in the outer blog STAYS in the outer blog. If you’re having “issues” with another Kossack, keep it “out there.” This is a place to relax and play; please treat it accordingly. There are some pics we never post: snakes, creepy crawlies, any and all photos that depict or encourage human cruelty toward animals. These are considered “out of bounds” and will not be tolerated. If we alert you to it, please remember that we do have phobic peeps who react strongly to them. If you keep posting banned pics...well then...the Tigress will have to take matters in hand. Or, paw. He instantly perked up. “Treats?” I shook my head. “Human treats,” I clarified. “Halloween is a big human treat holiday.” “It should be a big Freddie treat day,” he said. “What with all the vacuums and pumpkins and small humans at the door.” I thought about it. “You aren’t wrong,” I said finally. With that, I walked to the family room where his bag of treats and snowman dispenser waited. He trotted after me, excited. I carefully filled his snowman while he waited, mildly impatient, at my feet. Task complete, I set the toy gently in front of him. He looked at it, then back up at me. “You can just give me the treats. You don’t have to make me work for them.” I raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it more satisfying to hunt them yourself? I’ve read that’s more satisfying.” “Maybe,” he said, watching the snowman as if it were inclined to run away from him. “But it’s not as quick.” I laughed. “Lazy kitty.” “Smart kitty,” he retorted. Grudgingly, he reached out to roll the snowman and release the treats. I left him to it. I sat at the kitchen island, cutting and wrapping homemade caramels in squares of parchment paper. Freddie suddenly appeared in the chair next to me. “Is that chicken?” he asked. I looked down at my work, then over at him. “Does it look like chicken?” I asked. “No,” he said. “But you usually sit here with chicken. Then you give me some chicken. And I’m happy because I have chicken.” “No chicken today,” I said, sadly. “Just more human treats.” He stretched out his neck in an attempt to smell the caramels. I pushed him gently back. “Cat hair does not pair well with caramel,” I explained. He frowned. “Cat hair goes with everything,” he said. I looked down at my shirt and sighed. “It seems to,” I said. The kitchen timer went off and I stood. “Don’t touch these,” I said, firmly, pointing down at the mess of caramel squares and parchment paper. Freddie, now lying down on the chair, tucked his paws under his body. “Good boy,” I said. Picking up a kitchen towel, I opened the oven to check on the pumpkin bread. The toothpick came out clean, so I lifted it out of the heat and onto the waiting cooling rack. I turned back to the island. “Freddie!” I screeched. He was sitting in my seat, his face buried in pile of candy and paper. He lifted his head and looked at me. “It’s really not chicken,” he said. I pushed out my lower lip and blew the hair out of eyes. “I told you that.” “Yeah, but sometimes you lie to keep me out of things.” I walked over and shooed him back to his chair. I sat and looked down at my possibly ruined candy. “That’s true,” I conceded. Two of the squares of caramel were hopelessly covered in cat hair. I tossed those in the trash. The rest seemed fine. “We just won’t tell anyone,” I told him. “I’m no snitch,” he agreed. With that settled, I went back to work. “What is this for?” he asked. “Are you giving these to the small humans who yell for sweets?” I shook my head. “No one wants homemade candy from a stranger,” I said. “These are for a party.” His ears flattened. “Not here!” I assured him. “At work. No one is coming here.” “That was close,” he said. “That was almost a horror story.” “Caramel apples are very Halloween,” I explained. “So are rice crispy treats.” I pointed at the tray on the kitchen counter. “And caramel corn was always a staple when I was a kid. Not so much anymore as people don’t give out homemade treats nowadays.” I paused, remembering what it was like to go door to door when I was little. “There was an elderly couple who brought their barbecue to their front yard every Halloween. They gave out hotdogs to the kids who came by.” “That’s a good treat!” I smiled, remembering how good they tasted. “They took pictures of all the kids and the next year they’d pin the photos to a board. You could take your picture.” He frowned. “I think you take a lot of pictures of me,” he said. I shrugged. “Not too many.” “It seems like a lot.” “Nope!” I said, quickly. “I take the right amount.” I wrapped the last piece of candy, and sat back, looking at the mess I’d made. Grabbing a freezer bag, I picked out all the wrapped candy and stored it there, then swept together the scraps of paper. Freddie watched from his perch next to me. “Are you going to make the humans get the treats out of a toy?” he asked. “No,” I said. “Humans don’t really do that.” “Someone told me it was more satisfying that way,” he said, staring hard at me. I grinned at him. “But not as quick,” I said. Happy Caturday, Peeps! I’ve linked my favorite Halloween treat recipes, if you are looking for any last minute ideas. I’ve made them all before and can vouch for them. 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