My Secret Cat Stuff Santa kept me in the loop throughout the exchange because one of the gifts she had ordered took its good old time getting to her. She sent a message letting me know to expect the package soon. When it hadn’t shown up in a week, she let me know it should have arrived. I checked the tracking number and found that it had been delivered 5 days before, and the post office neglected to put a notice or key in my box. (No surprise as another package I had been waiting for had been mis-scanned the day before.)

Today, I walked into the Post Office with my printed slips of paper with tracking numbers and delivery dates and inquired about my wayward friends. The postal worker returned from the back with two packages for me (one from Secret Cat Santa) and apologized for the confusion. So I came home with the boxes. As soon as I put them down, Nimbus sat on top waiting for me to open them. I don’t think it occurs to her that when she sits on top of the boxes, they can’t be opened unless I go into them from the sides. Gray Cat checked them out too, but he wandered off to take a nap.

I grabbed my handy-dandy gigantic scissors to slice the tape and folded back the flaps. All of a sudden, a gray thumbed paw darts into the box and grabs a little purple thing. I wasn’t expecting such an immediate photo opportunity or I would have had a video of it. She scampered around the bed with the purple piece of fluff as I opened the other packages.

I love the paw print paper, and it will be re-reused. :D Nimbus loves the way it crinkles when she jumps on it. Inside the box, a hand-cut spooky cat card waited explaining all the gifts. All of the gifts (except perhaps the little purple glitter puff and the 3 tubes of cat treats), contained a literary bent. She sent a horror novel with a creepy lenticular hologram cat on the cover…I’ve already spent entirely too much time wiggling it back and forth between the two images. I’m so easily amused. The next gift appeared out of the wrapping as a vintage black cat pen holder. Pippin enjoyed munching on a pen without having to bend over. My other pen holder is at an angle, and he’s not thrilled with having to slouch to chew his pens. The final package contained a set of vintage wooden cat bookends. In my blather, I had mentioned having a slight collection of wooden cats. They intimidate Nimbus, and she chews their ears, so they live on the mantel where she doesn’t climb. These bookends look terrified of getting their ears chewed. We’ll have to see if their fear intimidates the live cat.

Thank you Secret Cat Santa for these amazing gifts!!! I’ll try to keep Nimbus from chewing.