Christmas Shopping

Unique finds at the boutique stores on Boxton Ave.

Little Miss Zazzy | Newsroom Intern

Hi, kitties!

I’m a new intern at Meowsborough Weekly, and our Managing Editor, Madam Cocoa Bean, just asked me if I’d like to write a short article on Christmas shopping!  I am so excited right meow because I could spin-and-chase yarns about this very topic for like hours and hours!

I simply love the quaint stores on Boxton Avenue in Meowsborough, which are not national chain stores offering the same ol’ meowchandise.  No, these stores are adorable and spunky! 

I always start at the fishmonger’s shop, Surfing Cat.  This delicatessen offers lavish gift baskets like the Smoked Fish Collection, which contains tasty salmon pate, tuna bites, sablefish jerky, canned caviar, and a seasonal surprise.  (Last year, this surprise was a decadent “World Flavors” glass jar – adorned with a satin ribbon tie and filled with king crab salad marinated in a creamy eel sauce.  It was so delicious!)  The owner is quite generous: you can sample savory fishes, succulent bivalves, and salmon-pink roe at the counter.  I often leave the SC with a rounded belly!

But a tummy full of succulent seafood doesn’t stop me from enjoying samples at my next stop, The Mouser’s Trap.  At Christmas time, this cheesemonger sells cheese wheels individually packaged in colorful cellophane, then dropped into tiny stockings.  You’ll definitely leave The Mouser’s Trap carrying a mouthful of stockings for all of your litter mates!

I then shop at Silvervine Weaves.  Seriously, ignore the rumors; this store doesn’t grow illicit meoweejuana in its back room.  It sells lawfully- and sustainably-sourced silvervine.  The store is best known for its fresh, beautiful, silvervine, Christmas wreaths which are paw-crafted with love by the shop’s owner.  Kitty-safe flower arrangements are also available for purchase.

I also do some “window shopping” at Tom’s Custom Hidey Boxes.  This place is way above my pay grade as an intern, but I still stop here to admire Tom’s craftsmanship and warm my paws.  Tom fashions hidey boxes from oak inlaid with blue ash, sealed with a shiny lacquer resistant to claws and teeths.

I don’t always stop into The Clay Paw.  Rather, from just the entryway, I watch excited kittens enrolled in their pottery classes.  Bounding here and there over wet clay, the kittens leave their cute marks everywhere!  The paw impressions are then cut into clay ornaments, which the kittens can gift to their mama-cats after the clay is dried, glazed, and fired in the kiln by the exceptionally patient kitties running The Clay Paw.  Even if you don’t like ceramics, you’ll sure love watching the kittens making their ”masterpieces” in the clay.

Finally, I stop at Leaves & Foam, the quaint tea and coffee shop that lets you pounce into tea leaves and bat at coffee foam.  After a bit of fun, I like to relax.  The tea is calming, and the cat beds by the fireplace are comfy.  I usually leave the Leaves & Foam feeling restored and ready for either more shopping along Boxton Avenue or gift wrapping at home.

I’m confident that you’ll find unique gifts for your whole clowder and your special meow-friend at these boutique shops!

On that note, I should go.  I really must wrap presents meow, so that I have ample time to play with the boxes, tissues, papers, and ribbon – before I wrap the gifts and zoomie to the post office.

Afterward by our Managing Editor, Madam Cocoa Bean:

Dear Esteemed Readers,

I wanted to give our newest intern the opportunity to publish her first article.  Please forgive her amateurish verbosity, tone, and punctuation – especially her excessive use of exclamation marks.  Every young kitty pushing nose-and-whiskers into the publishing world writes in this manner at first but learns to write better over time.  I have great faith in this little kitty; her writing skills grow by leaps-and-pounces every day.

Best wishes and happy tidings,

Cocoa Bean