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December 2, 2004
Winnie the Pooh: Or, Getting Your Cats into the Holiday Spirit
Last weekend while Susanne and I were at Disney World in Florida, we purchased a medium-sized Winnie the Pooh doll. Unlike the vast majority of people who've bought the same doll, we didn't buy it just for its cute looks or charm. We bought it for its orange sweater, misguided by the hope that it might actually fit our cat Winston. The results, to say the least, were mixed.
The temptation of getting Winston a Winnie the Pooh sweater had been intolerable. I mean, he's a fat orange tabby nicknamed Winnie. If there's any other creature, fictitious or otherwise, besides Winnie the Pooh that deserves to wear an orange sweater with the word "Pooh" emblazoned across the front, it's our boy Winnie.
After we got home from Florida, we waited a couple of days before trying to put it on our chubby orange tabby. Though Winnie is always glad to see us when we return from a trip, sometimes he holds our travels against us; on more than one occasion I've been scratched by him during a surprise attack from behind. He's probably just trying to remind us that he's the boss in our apartment -- either that, or he simply doesn't like us being away from him for extended periods.
ANYWAY, we didn't want to raise his ire by returning from a week-long trip and immediately decorating him with clothing, so we let 48 hours pass before giving it a shot. The first step was waiting for a moment when Winnie was really, really groggy. Winston is a 21-pound (nine kilo) cat, and he's strong as all get-out, so it's best not to put clothes on him when he's very alert. Fortunately, being a cat, he sleeps 18 hours a day, so it didn't take long before we found an opportune moment and stretched the sweater over his head.
As you can see from this picture, the sweater didn't fit. Back in Florida we'd even taken the sweater off the doll to guess whether it would fit him or not, but we misjudged his unusual girth. Of course, the sweater was designed to fit a doll and not a cat, so we shouldn't have been shocked when we discovered the sweater's arm holes weren't in the right place for his front paws. And when he wore the sweater without his paws fitting through, he kinda looked like he'd been in an industrial accident. Not the look we were going for.
Fortunately, our other cat, Dizzy, is much smaller than Winnie, and it was much easier to get the sweater on him. Unlike Winston, he hates wearing anything -- collars, hats, vests, sweaters, you name it. So even though he looked adorable in the sweater, we had to take it off after a few seconds before it'd drive him crazy... -andy
Posted by acarvin at December 2, 2004 8:45 AM
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