Feline Festivus: Things people do for Fluffy at the holidays
The loving - and wacky - lengths people go to in order to make it a special time for kitty
It's the time of year when Fluffy, Muffy, Buffy, Tuffy, Gruffy, or whatever the fabulous felines in your world are called, are all looking forward to the festive season. Or so many adoring owners believe.
When it comes to celebrating the holidays, many cat lovers clearly consider their furry companions equal - and sometimes more than equal - members of the family.
“I like to make little pompoms, catnip mice, catnip fish - all kinds of different things - for my cats to open Christmas morning.”
“My cat loves her Christmas dress … or I think she does.”
“My 10-year-old cat actually sits at the table for Christmas dinner - which is totally bizarre and I can’t believe I’m admitting this! She sits at the head of the table and eats turkey off a Royal Doulton china plate.”
These are a few of the comments shared recently by cat lovers at Toronto’s Royal York hotel. That’s where a couple of hundred people gathered on a wintry night for a comedy fundraiser for the Humane Society and Annex Cat Rescue called “Feline Festivus.”
Lovers of all things feline gathered to bring on the holiday cheer, tell a few jokes and raise money for cats with no place to call home.
And even among the cat-lovers, there was room for a bit of a Grinch: "If you hang up stockings for your cat, it's the same thing as buying free-range chicken treats. They have no idea what you're doing, it's all for your own psycho pleasure."
CBC Radio producer Frank Faulk dropped by Feline Festivus to record the loving - and wacky - lengths people go to in order to make Christmas a special time for their kitty companions. To hear more of what people had to say about their cats and the holiday season, tune-in Sunday to CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition starting at 9 a.m., or listen here.
This week on The Sunday Edition
On CBC Radio on Sunday Dec. 14 starting at 9 a.m.:
- A Christmas Concert - Michael's Essay: An account of when Michael's son played in the Grade Three Recorder Ensemble.
- Coastal Florida and Miami are doomed: Harold Wanless, Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami, says sea levels will rise by at least a couple of metres by the end of this century. The consequences for South Florida, where hundreds of thousands of Canadians own property, are hard to wrap your head around.
- Bob Bossin's dad, aka Davy the Punk: Bob Bossin, the folk singer and founder of Stringband, went on a journey in search of his father.
- A worn menorah tells a remarkable, true story: The tale of a Christian family's courage and a Jewish family's escape in the darkest of times.