My darling cat's obsession with the Christmas tree taught me a thing or two

This First Person column is written by Claire Biddiscombe who lives in Ottawa with her cat. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

I bought my first Christmas tree — three feet tall, pre-lit — for $9.99 at a Canadian Tire in Ottawa. It was mid-December 2009, and it had become clear that, for the first time in my life, I was not going to get home to my family for Christmas. 

It had been half a year of slow unravelling. I graduated from university in the spring with a job already lined up. In the