Though I don’t like to think of my cats as people, I do like to get them something for Christmas, even if it’s just some homemade cat treats (which explains why I stayed up late one snowy December 23rd, Googling recipes for these things). No, they don’t expect anything, they don’t understand why they get presents, but they’re glad to have them.
This Christmas, though, I’m wondering if some of the gifts I’m thinking of getting them aren’t really gifts for myself.
As I’ve written before, a pet supply store has plenty of things that would make good gifts for humans. But that’s not really what I mean. What I mean is, if I get my cats a battery-powered toy, is it for them, or is it to spare me the time it would take to play with them? And is that really good, for them or for me?
Then there are those gadgets that automatically dispense food and water for days at a time. Actually, the cats would probably love having a water bowl that never runs low (food, they take for granted). But we humans would love the idea of being able to go away overnight without having to ask our neighbor to come in every day. Yet, that’s one of the ways we build community.
(Oh, wait – someone would still have to come in every day to clean the litter box. They haven’t invented an automatic version of that yet. Though when they do, we’ll be very interested.)
I do know one thing: I draw the line at buying the cats a video of birds, fish, and small animals. Yes, they do make these things, and they can run all day. But I think the cats would just get frustrated, and our TV would get severely scratched.
Not much of a present for them or us.
