By and large, our tiger cat is very good, even at Christmas time when all of the shiny decorations must pose a mighty temptation. She doesn’t try to climb the Christmas tree, or chew the electric cords, or bat the ornaments. She ignores the ribbons and bows and stockings. But there’s something about the greenery that whets her appetite. 

She chews on the lower branches of our tree and the greenery wrapped around the stair rail, seemingly unaware that it’s plastic she is eating. We scold her and chase her away, but she always returns for a bit more of the tasty treat. Inevitably, we will find a nasty, little present containing these green needles somewhere in the house every few days. And still she eats them. 

This year we bought her an early Christmas present of cat grass, hoping we could coax her into eating these good greens instead of the bad. No dice. She sniffs the cat grass, but otherwise ignores it and heads straight to the tree. Obviously, her food choice has nothing to do with a missing nutrient, and everything to do with the shiny, beautiful enticement of our Christmas tree. I suppose I should just be happy she wants to eat it and not scale it.