Don't touch the sheep!

My parents' Nativity set is on the buffet in the living room. When I was little, I never could resist playing with the animals, especially the sheep. Time and time again, my mother or my dad would tell me "Don't touch the animals... they're watching the Baby Jesus." And, time and time again, I would make it a point to walk into the dining room, take the little sheep from the manger underneath the tree, and bring them up to my playroom or into the living room. I'd always put them back when I was done, but I never could get them in the exact spots, so my parents knew if I had touched them.

So here I am now, more than fifty years later, and that same Nativity is with me once again. I don't like a manger scene underneath a Christmas tree, which is why I put it up on the buffet. It's easier to see all the details of this set, plus I thought it would be safer there, away from the prying paws and curious whiskers of my cats.

Silly me. Less than an hour after I finished arranging the Nativity and all its pieces, Mickey Kitty jumped up there and was playing with (of all things to chose from) the sheep! He moves the sheep from one side of the manger to the other, and sometimes he will put his paw into the manger and try to get the donkey out. I keep telling him not to touch the sheep, and if he hears me walking into the living room, he will jump down before I can say anything.

I have already lost count of how many times I have had to set the sheep back up on their legs after Mickey Kitty has pawed them down into the hay. And of course I always know if he has played with them because once he has knocked them down, it would be impossible for him to set them upright again.

Each time Mickey Kitty plays with the sheep, he also eats a little piece of the hay I spread out underneath all the pieces in the Nativity set. I'm guessing that by the time Christmas comes, there will be precious little hay left under the animals in the manger.

With all the table-top Christmas trees in every room of this house, plus countless Santas and angels, pixies and elves, the only thing Mickey has chosen to play with are the sheep in that Nativity set. Maybe he's trying to squeeze himself inside the manger. Mickey is a small cat, and if all the figures weren't in that stable-like structure, he could probably get in there and curl up for a nap.

Our cats have grown up with all sorts of decorative items around the house, and they have learned to play just with their own toys. But I guess the sheep are just too irresistible for Mickey's little paws, just as they were for me so many years ago.