Readers’ Christmas moggies

In place of the readers’ wildlife photos, we’re having a series of readers’ domestic wildlife, aka kitties. Yesterday I asked readers to send in one picture of their cat having a Christmas theme. I will post more if they arrive today, but here’s what we have.  Readers’ descriptions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Send ’em in until noon Chicago time!

From Bob Randall:

Fred would rather attack the low hanging ornaments on our regular tree. This small tree only has one wooden ornament, and he didn’t bother with it.  When the presents were finally opened this morning, he was all into the wrapping paper and opened boxes.  Fred just showed up one afternoon, and despite our attempts to find his former owner, he adopted us. Fred was named to go along with his best friend and sometime nemesis, Barney, as in the Flintstones.

From Publilius:

Here’s my twelve-year-old cat Violet. A co-worker’s daughter brought her home as a kitten.  year later, the daughter moved to California, leaving the cat behind. No one else in the family wanted a cat, so I offered to adopt her. She’s been a great cat.

From Robert Wooley, of Asheville, NC:

This is Lucy (now 13 years old), on 2/24/19, in her Santa hat and scarf. This is a historically rare photo, because they were only on her for about 5 seconds before she ripped them off, and she has never allowed me to tarnish her dignity with them again. Lucy is the best cat I’ve ever had: soft, cuddly, playful, easy to take care of, non-destructive, clean, funny.

From Ursula: “Edith guarding the stocking”:

From George Scott in Colorado:

A few years ago we had two sweet (usually) black cats, Christopher and Samantha. They passed away at the ages of 18 and 19, We miss having them around, but don’t miss some of the duties of being cat staff, so we replaced them with these two black plastic cats. Not as cuddly, but far easier to take care of.

From Reese Vaughan:

It’s Woodford Reserve again; his litter was named for liquor.  He lives in Texas.  Every year he takes a great interest in the Christmas tree. Here, he appears to be sniffing the lights, but the granddaughter says he bit them.

From JC McLoughlin:

Inkling oozes around the table leg in silent preparation for an assault on Ghrelin. NOT a pretty sight.

From Darrel E.:

This is one of our three, Princess Leia, making herself at home in the Christmas village under our tree. She is about 5 years old now.

We found Leia at our local humane society when she was about 3 months old. She was a feral that they had trapped with two other litter mates. They were not having any luck trying to habituate her to humans and were beginning to think they may not be able to adopt her out.

We took her and had her out of her shell in a week, though she still has her quirks. She is the sweetest soul I have ever encountered.

From Shoshana:

I’m attaching picture of my Christmas cats. Yoda and Mendel are half brothers (same father) born six months apart. Both have mutations in KRT71, the same gene that causes curls in poodles and near hairlessness in the Canadian Sphynx. (Though visible in their truncated whiskers and wavy fur, I confirmed through Basepaws that they have the rexoid mutations. Other than that, they are moggies with a little bit of a lot of breeds—everything from Maine Coon and Norwegian Forest Cat to British and American Shorthair and Bengal, etc.)

From Bruce Cochrane:

Here are two of ours – Mothra and Rommel. Both are purebred Burmese, bred. By the late Delores Kennedy of Louisville. Rommel is 10, at more than lives up to his name. Mothra is 4 and did a lot to get us through COVID.

PS – we are up to N=8.

From Kevin Henderson of Los Alamos, New Mexico:

Jules (2) Lyra (15, black), and Opera (9, named after the Santa Fe Opera).  The lamb behind Lyra is g-2.  A physicist will get that reference.

From Brooke O’Neill in Atlanta

This is a picture of Peppermint – sadly now departed – on the Christmas day when she was gifted to my then- 7 yo daughter as a wee kitten. My daughter very aptly named her Peppermint since it was Christmas day and since the kitten had red (orange, really) and white stripes.

One of the first things my daughter did was tuck the kitten into the pink hat (don’t worry – the kitty was very cozy and content).

From Elizabeth Leahey-Martinez:

This is our rescue cat Lilah on her favorite blanket in front of what she considers her Christmas tree. Our vet believes Lilah is part Egyptian Mau, which is quite an interesting breed to read up on, as they have a unique skin fold under their belly that allows them to be more agile and jump very high, along with some other unique characteristics. Her mother was found pregnant wandering the streets of Fullerton, California. My vet and two sisters who run a rescue took her mother in and we adopted her about 5 years ago.

From Steven Eakman:

Here is our elder statesman, Nigel, addressing the assembly from his Pillow of Purrfect Pronouncements.

From Naama Pat-El:

Attached are pics of Mulan (fluffy grey and white) and Maryam with the tree. Our two other cats are less interested…

From Susan Harrison:

Here are Natasha (foreground), Boris, and their stuffed sibling — a.k.a.  Spirit Cat — enjoying the holidays.

From Dennis Howard Schneider:

Here is Bootz, a Hili lookalike. She was left on my porch 13 years ago around Christmas. She is one tough cookie:

From Linda Taylor (no cat name given), titled “Waiting for guests for Christmas Eve Dinner”:

From Steven Psycho:

Bif was found living in a tree at about 1 yr old. She just celebrated her 1 yr anniversary when she was found with her paws frozen to the driveway.

My daughter and her husband poured warm water on her feet to free her.  They brought Bif inside ” just until she recovers”. Bif has been a housecat ever since.

From Natalie in Berlin:

Stupsi is a 3 year old cat of Polish descent that welcomed me and my family into the new house we moved to this summer. She is a scepticat as you can see here – albeit a total sweetheart with the children whom she teaches good manners for long lasting happy relationships with their new cat master.

I asked her if she would put on a Santa hat to send as a Christmas greetings to your readers. Her answer I interpreted as “You must be joking.” The Christmas candle was more successful. The newly planted Christmas tree is pleasantly accepted as an opportunity for hide and seek games, pretending she is not there, and then jumping out from behind it to the surprised delighted giggles of our daughter Murielle (4). Really for atheists there is no better companion than a sweet Stupsi like her.

From reader Divy in Florida we have a Christmas-y Jango:

From Laurie:

Here is your niece, Miss Octavia Sadle, listening to her favourite xmas music!!!

And your namesake niece, Miss Alcestis Jerry, in her mummy’s lap!

From Sue Smalldon:

In the spirit of Christmas, spreading love and understanding, I wanted to share a heartwarming moment that happened this morning – Christmas morning. For the first time ever, my dog ‘Homer’ let one of my cats ‘Fearless Pussycat’ clean his ears!

To understand this milestone, I should add that Homer doesn’t even let me clean his ears, so it was an absolutely thrilling WOW moment.

Homer and Fearless Pussycat have always had a unique relationship. Fearless Pussycat, true to her name, is always bold and adventurous, while Homer is more reserved and protective. This special interaction between them was wonderful.

Oh btw it reached 39.4 degrees Celsius today so that’s about 103 degrees Fahrenheit. Hence the fan  in the photo, although I’ve ended with both fans and the air conditioner on.

Here is Ruby in the tree again this year. She gets the zoomies and ends up in the tree for a break.

Have a fantastic 2025.

Also from Stephen P., “Some cat figures and pics which are ubiquitous in Chiang Mai, Thailand.”  They must love their cats there