Millie’s Christmas ~ A Kitten Story

STORIES

Apr 30

Millie’s Christmas

Chapter 1

Hello. My name is Millie, and I'm a cat. Well, my mama says I'm still a kitten. But I'm four months old. I think that makes me a pretty grown-up cat.

We live in a house where there are two cats, Mama and me. There’s one dog, Bruce. He’s my friend. And we have four people. The most important person is Ruthie. She's six years old, and she's my best friend. She says I'm her cat, but really she's my person.

Ruthie has a big brother named Jake who's nineteen. He's funny. Then there are their parents, Mommy and Daddy, and they're nice but very busy.

“It’s Christmas time! It’s Christmas time! Millie, you’re going to love Christmas.”

Ruthie says I'm beautiful. I'm orange all over, except a white spot on my tummy and one white ear. Bruce laughed at me once and said I looked goofy with that one white ear. What does he know? He's mostly brown all over, with a black patch above his nose, and he has white feet. Now that's goofy.

Something exciting happened today. Ruthie picked me up, squeezed me, and ran all over the house yelling, “It's Christmas time! It's Christmas time! Millie, you're going to love Christmas.”

“Meow, meow,” I yelled back. I didn't know what Christmas was, but Ruthie was excited, so I was too. “Meow.”

Ruthie kissed my face and whirled through the house, making me dizzy. “At Christmas we have lots of fun food, and candles, and decorations, and visiting, and candy.” She rubbed my ribs. “You’ll love it, Millie.”

I didn’t know what most of that stuff was, but it made Ruthie happy, so I knew it would be great.

Daddy and Jake brought home what Ruthie called a Christmas tree. It didn’t look like any of the trees out in the yard, with long sticks on them. This tree was bushy all over and really sharp and prickly, and they pulled it out of the ground from somewhere. Strange. But it sure smelled good.

“Now, Millie.” Ruthie carried me over to the Christmas tree. “We’re going to hang ornaments all over this tree. Please don’t bother them.”

Hmmm. I wonder what ornaments are. They must be something fun to play with.

In the middle of the night, Mama and I went to the Christmas tree and nibbled some of the branches. That was fun, and yummy, but Mama said we shouldn’t do it much, or the parents might get mad. I’d never seen them get mad, but Mama’d been around for Christmas before and knew what she was talking about. Mama was really smart.

Ruthie’s mommy started playing Christmas music. Daddy said, “Already?” Mommy just laughed and sang along with the music.

The music did sound fun—bouncy and happy. Many of the songs were about Jesus. Ruthie told me, “Jesus is the most important part of Christmas.” I didn’t know who Jesus was, but Ruthie was excited about him, so I was too. I hoped I would get to meet him.

Other Christmas songs were about snowmen and reindeer and silver bells and sleigh rides and presents and more about snow. Everything sounded like so much fun. I ran around the house with Ruthie, jumping on and off furniture. Christmas was great!

Chapter 2

I found out what they meant about snow. Brrr. Ruthie took me outside and held me so I could sniff and taste it. It was nothing but wet and cold, and I didn’t like it.

Jake yelled from behind us, “Hey, frosty, turn around.”

With me in her arms Ruthie turned around, and Jake threw a big handful of snow in her face. Some of it splashed in my face too. Shiver…shiver.

Ruthie squealed and giggled and put me down. She picked up handfuls of the snow and threw them at Jake. They laughed and threw the snow at each other for a long time, running around in the cold. Hurrying back to the front door, I scrunched into as little a ball as possible. Maybe Ruthie would notice and decide to come in soon.

Mama and I would sometimes go outside to explore and nibble at things and lie in the sun and rest. Or we did when it was warm. Since it got cold, we stayed inside. Mama told me some cats had to live outside all the time. That made me very sad for them.

“Mama told me some cats had to live outside all the time. That made me very sad for them.”

The funniest thing happened while Jake and Ruthie were playing in the snow. Ruthie’s mommy let Bruce outside.

Now Bruce was my friend, but he acted strange sometimes. As soon as he got outside, he ran into the yard and sniffed, then rolled around in the snow. He stood up, shook all over, sneezed, and rolled around some more. He liked the snow. I rubbed at my runny nose. Sometimes, I didn’t understand dogs.

“Jake?” Ruthie’s voice sounded sad. “Are you going to spend Christmas with your mommy again?”

Wait…What?

I looked up. Ruthie stood still, her face pointed down at the ground.

Jake reached over and rubbed the hat on Ruthie’s head. “Yes, sweetie.”

“Oh.” I almost couldn’t hear Ruthie’s voice.

“Hey.” Jake lifted Ruthie’s head to face him. “We’ve got lots of Christmas season to celebrate together still.” He pushed a snowball in Ruthie’s face.

“Oh, Jake.” Ruthie spit out some snow, then giggled and made another snowball to throw at Jake. It was good to see Ruthie happy again.

But I was still cold. I shivered and tried to curl into an even tighter heap. Snow was a part of Christmas I sure didn’t like, and I hoped Ruthie wouldn’t make me go out in it again.