Pepper vs. The Little People

I'm the first to admit that my cat Pepper is a little, well, odd. She is extremely clutzy for a cat, and she has a habit of suddenly noticing things that have been right in front of her for weeks and taking a new dislike of them for no apparent reason. This morning was a prime example. We got back from our holiday vacation up in PA last night, and Bailey immediately curled up for a nap in his usual place. Pepper, however, started staring intently at the arrangement of Christmas caroling dolls displayed on top of my secretary desk in the living room. Within half an hour she was growling at them. And by bedtime she was pacing anxiously back and forth in front of them. These dolls have been up on top of the desk for nearly three weeks, and she'd never given them a second glance. This morning her paranoia reached a new level when she started attacking the desk by leaping from the back of the sofa towards the dolls. As I mentioned, she's clutzy, so she didn't make it to the top of the desk, but rather hit the front of it several times and slid down to the floor with her nails imbedded in the wood. The dolls and much of the pine were knocked down, and she seemed pleased with her work. I put everything back in place, and now she's started the whole process again. The picture is of her staring at the dolls from the sofa just a few minutes ago. Anyone wanna lay bets on how long it takes before she starts dive-bombing the dolls again??

The holidays can be stressful...