The evidence was on her nose

Paris Marathon Training: Week 2 of 18
Today’s target run: rest day

Now I know how our parents felt, when as children we did something we were not supposed to and tried to cover our tracks. I never could understand how my mom and dad were always able to “sniff” out the truth. I always seemed to conceive of a plausible story to masquerade as the truth but they quickly saw through it every time.

Well, I’ve had some insight into that situation with my feline child, Ginger. It’s all in the face, figuratively or literally. You see, our faces belied the smooth exterior of the dutiful child we were trying to project. Either we looked too angelic to be believable, or we'd left traces of the dirty deed on our person.

Let me give you an example. Every year, it is a challenge to decorate the Christmas tree in a way that will not tempt Ginger to bat around all the ornaments on the lower branches…or in her case, within the distance of a paw swipe. We’ve tried not hanging the ornaments on the lower branches, but the tree looks goofy. We moved on to the strategy of putting only non-breakable ornaments on the lower branches, which today is still the primary defense. We’ve even wrapped the ornament so tightly around the branches that we have trouble removing the ornament from the tree during Christmas tree disassembly.

The evidence of Christmas tree tampering is always quite apparent, though. Needles on the floor below the tree, presents that had been “stepped” on an attempt to get up under the tree to swipe at an ornament, ornaments all over the house, under sofas, and behind furniture. It had to be one of two felines, but still, we could never catch the exact culprit in the act.

Well, kitty CSI swept into action last week. As I lounged on the sofa watching TV, Ginger (a.k.a. Sweet Kitty) jumped into my lap, purring loudly and sticking her cold little nose in my face. “Give me some love because I am such a sweet and good kitty” she seemed to be saying.

And there it was…the evidence….right on the tip of her pink little nose and in the fur on her face….red glitter from the Christmas ornaments. And she did not even have a clue she had sold herself out…given herself up…game over.