(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Caturday Pootie Diary: Wrap party [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-16 “Human, what is all of this?” Freddie asked, looking around at the mess on the living room floor. “Presents!” I declared, cutting through the packing tape on a sealed box. I had ordered a lot online this year, not having much time for in-person shopping. Freddie stepped delicately onto a sheet of wrapping paper, pawing gently at the roll and crinkling the unfurled paper under his paws. I let him explore, knowing nothing here could hurt him. I put the scissors on the coffee table next to my spot on the ground and looked around, doing a quick check of my tools. Tape, scissors, paper, ribbon, tags, gifts. Check. 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. “I still don’t understand,” he said, looking hard at a spool of ribbon. I picked it up and put it on the table with the scissors. “This isn’t your first Christmas,” I reminded him. “You’ve see me wrap presents.” “It didn’t make sense then, either,” he said. He lowered his head and smelled the wrapping paper. “It’s just a human thing. You wrap up an object and give it to someone. The paper keeps the gift a surprise until it’s opened. Also, it’s just fun to open a wrapped gift.” I pulled a soft blanket wrapped in plastic from the box I had opened, and then set the box aside. Freddie looked up, his eyes dilating. “Is that a box?” he demanded. “I’m no artist,” I told Freddie. “But this isn’t rocket science.” Freddie coiled his body then sprung forward, into the box I had discarded. “I’m mixing my metaphors, but you know what I mean.” He turned in a circle, then sat in the center of the box. I set the gift in the center of the paper and started the process of folding and taping. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him smell the box edges. I cut the excess paper off and and finished wrapping the gift. I looked over at Freddie, wadded up the paper and threw it at him. He caught it and dropped it into his new box, ducking down to play with it. I started whistling, setting the wrapped gift on the floor to my left, deciding to decorate the gifts once they were all wrapped. I reached out for another one. The box full of cat jumped and hopped with the force of his play. I grinned, then got back to work. I was almost finished with the wrapping part when Freddie went quiet. I leaned over to look and saw he was curled up, thinking about a nap. “You have several beds,” I said. “I like the box,” he answered. I looked around. “There’re more boxes now,” I said. He hopped to his feet. “Where?” I used the side of the first gift to measure the ribbon, then cut it. “You aren’t going to fit,” I said, not looking up from my work. “I can fit,” he insisted, struggling to get a third paw into a box that was way too small. Shaking my head, I tied the ribbon around the gift and made a pretty bow. Freddie’s box tipped over and spilled him to the ground. “Are you okay?” I asked. “I meant to do that,” he said. I cut the ribbon for the last gift and shook it out in front of me. Freddie pounced, sliding across the hardwood with the end of the ribbon between his claws. The force of his slide pulled the ribbon out of my hand. “Freddie!” I cried, laughing. “I need that!” He rolled, twisting the ribbon around himself and sliding into a pile of discarded paper. “Ah, keep the ribbon,” I said, reaching for the spool. It was thick ribbon so I wasn’t worried about him swallowing it. I leaned back against the couch and sighed. I liked waiting until I had finished shopping to start wrapping, but it always meant a lot all at once. Freddie appeared at my side and climbed into my lap, nudging my hands out of the way. “Make yourself comfortable,” I said, dryly. He took me literally and curled up in the middle of my crossed legs. “I was going to get up. I need to clean up this mess and put the presents under the tree.” He closed his eyes. “I guess we can hang out here a while,” I said, fidgeting to get more comfortable on the hard ground. “I like wrapping presents,” Freddie murmured. Happy Caturday, Peeps! I have some baking left to do, but I’m mostly finished and a lot less stressed. Freddie is as he always is. How is your planning going (if you celebrate)? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/16/2212051/-Caturday-Pootie-Diary-Wrap-party?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/