Happy Holidays from Our "Poster-Cat for Christmas"

We have three cats. Harry is a 20-year-old all-black cat. Max, a large brown tabby, is eleven years old. The youngest is Ernest, an eight-year-old orange Tabby. We still call him "The Baby."

Somehow, beginning with his first year with us, Ernest managed to star in most of the Christmas photos. A six-toed cat, he is a descendant of one of the six-toed cats of the Hemingway house in Key West, Florida. Uh, that's why we named him Ernest. He's a prolific communicator, a petting slut, and the most playful of the three.

And, I almost forgot, charismatic in front of a camera. Here's Ernest among the packages, Christmas 2002.

This was taken the other day for Christmas 2009.

In this one, Ernest sends the message, "Peace on Earth." For visitors who love cats, here's a cat-poem Lisa Monet sent me with her Christmas greeting:

Lurk low, leap high,
Hunt brave, hide shy,
Blink warm, stare cold,
Play young, yawn old,
Crouch short, strut tall,
Act big, sleep small.