Cats and Candles

I was speaking to my friend JP a few months ago about her new landlord who seemed a bit crazy. He has these really strict rules in the contract – for example, NO CANDLES. You see, it’s because he’s very scared of fire and is worried that the cats will knock over the candles, thus burning down the whole house. The funny part is JP didn’t even have cats, yet they still couldn’t have candles because of his fear of cats and candles. (She has since gotten two kittens – if you can’t have candles, then you may as well have cats right?) Anyway, we would laugh about this, (as I hear my high-pitch excited voice) “Ah Ha Ha..Cats and Candles, Cats and Candles…oh no, what will we do??”

But now, I take it all back…and I take it very seriously. (hee hee). On Saturday night we had some friends over so I decorated the whole house with candles, including the bedroom. (I was hoping that the gentle candle-light would mask other less inviting things about our place – like the mess).

The first guests arrive and the cats scrambled towards the bedroom. After chatting for a minute, I looked down the hall into our room to see Zimby’s tail smoking over the candle. It was literally sizzling. I think she realized she was on fire at the same time as I did, and leapt onto the bed to get away from the flame on the dresser. Fortunately it just burnt some fur, but did not reach the skin. The strange part was, it was on her tail rather close to her rear, as if she almost sat on the candle. After this, the poor cat was traumatized and never left the bed. But the smell of burning fur lingered on…

So, the moral of the story is, although you may laugh, cats and candles do not a good mix make.