A Final Festive Wednesday

Yesterday, which was the Twelfth Day of Christmas, we shared a random assortment of festive photos. Some of the photos we shared showed off the snow we got for the New Year. What we didn't show was this here human's attempt to get photos of some of our outdoor Christmas decorations decked out with the snow. I wanted to get a photo before the snow in front of the decorations was disturbed, but I made the rookie mistake of taking pup Astrid into the yard with me. She was a perfect saboteur, not only disturbing the snow in front of the decorations, but also simply standing in the way.

Don't mind all the dead plant material up by the house. Things simply didn't get cut back and taken care of before winter hit. Such is life. Or death, in the case of those poor plants.

This next shot is similar to the one above, except for it better shows off Astrid's shameless smile after sabotaging my attempted photo.

Do you see the snow on Astrid's face? This pup is known to shove her face into snow and throw it around. She also likes to run circles in snow. This dog refuses to walk on dry leaves in the autumn for some reason that makes sense only to her, but she will happily run around and play in cold white stuff. Go figure.

Today's photos as well as our doodle below are still all shades of Christmas. As we mentioned yesterday, even though the Twelve Days of Christmas have now come and gone, today is what is known in Christianity as the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day. This signifies the day when the three kings, also known as the three wise men or the Magi, visited baby Jesus after following the Star of Bethlehem to the location of his birth. The three kings brought baby Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In some religions and cultures, gifts are exchanged on this day as a representation of the fact that the three kings gave baby Jesus gifts. I do give my family little gifts on this day, and of course that includes the kitties and pup. This year the kitties get a few more festive toys and pup Astrid gets another one of her favorite and festive dog cookies.

Happy Three Kings Day!

***

Festive Doodle of the Day

Sadly, we now have our final festive doodle for this Christmas season. That's certainly not to say we won't be sharing many more winter doodles, but this will be the final one for Christmas. That is, until Christmas in July.

***

Tip of the Day

Today's tip on caring for ferals and other outdoor cats yet again relates to shelters. If outdoor cats aren't using a shelter you've put out for them, first look it over and make sure nothing is off with it. Make sure it is not too confined or that its entrance isn't too small, as such things might make a cat feel trapped or cornered inside. If need be, such as if you do think an unused feral cat structure is being avoided due to confinement, add extra doorways or in another way make the shelter less likely to make cats feel trapped.

In some cases, outdoor cats just need a little extra help realizing that a shelter is safe and for them. If you have not already done so, put food and treats inside the shelter to tempt feral and other outdoor cats into the shelter. You can perhaps similarly tempt a feral into a shelter with bedding and a heat source, if you have found a workable, safe way to provide that in the shelter. If further tempting is needed in order to get cats into outdoor shelters, you can even try sprinkling some catnip, or silver vine or valerian root, inside in order to entice them.