Christmas Trees and Cats

I have had an indoor cat or two for most of my adult life.  I am a cat person.  I like dogs fine in small doses outside.  I have had wonderful cats and heinous cats.  I had the best cat in the world go guano crazy after my daughter died.  Now, I have Sookie.   

She's a beauty, isn't she?  She looks so innocent.  I've talked about her before here.  She's been mostly great.  She was a rescue who came to live with us just after the first of this year...after Christmas.  She's been de-clawed in front.  I really didn't foresee problems with Christmas decorations.  I was wrong or stupid.  Hey, it could be both.

It took me a long time to get the damn tree decorated yesterday, starting with putting lights on backwards.  I had to take them off and restring.  My seemingly ginormous belly gets in the way a lot.  Anyway, I finished it up around midnight last night, thanks to the hubs, and I was so pleased with myself.  I didn't leave the bottom empty of ornaments.  It didn't occur to me to do that.

Then, I came home from working 10 hours today.  My first indication something was wrong came from a shiny glint in the tree-lit carpet.  I turned on the overhead light.  A beautiful red ball lay crushed on the opposite wall from the tree.  I cleaned it up and went to admire the tree as well as try to get a decent photo.  Then, I noticed two other balls out of place.  Not just nudged on a branch were they.  One was on the tree skirt and the other was off to the side.  

How did she get them off?  She has NO claws!  Well, technically she does, but not in front.  My sweet little Sookie is now a demon cat.  My first indoor cat was too lazy to do anything but drink the tree water.  Then there was Whiskey.  He had to be outdoors after two weeks of absolutely refusing to use the litter box.  Next were Albert and Snookums.  They were the best cats in the whole world...until Olivia died.  Then, they nearly grieved themselves to death.  BUT, they never attacked a Christmas tree.  If Sookie continues to terrorize the Christmas tree, she'll surpass Whiskey the impossible-to-train-to-use-the-litter box cat as the cat who's angered me the most.  Banjo might even move up on the favorite pet list...

I am absolutely terrible at photographing  a lit tree.