UPDATE: The End of the Christmas Catzilla layout

January 2021 UPDATE BELOW....

You know that Christmas is just around the corner when we set up the table layout and our Tabby decides to take up residence again. Not much going on here, just a couple parallel ovals, some Christmas village buildings and the snowy version of Maithwaite station. I haven’t found any roads that work for me, so we’ll just say they’ve been covered by a heavy layer of snow. The snow is pollyfill blanket batting that just happens to be close to the size of the table.

But it’s mostly about the yearly cat on the layout photo anyway!

[Super]

What is it with Cats that they always park their butt's in our spaces.

Another day, another cat pic....

My daughter added a bunch of additional buildings to the layout last night. Kitty was not deterred!

the fake snow is essentially a piece of fur that keeps the cat warm during cold weather

Well... hello, Kitty! She's adorable! 

[Super]

Parking her butt again...why do they like to lay around anything new in the house. Is it a territorial thing or do they see you spend time and attention on something and want to butt in to get their attention?

cats are curious.  they always attack the Christmas trees.

@ leylandvictory: That’s a major part of it. The snow is a pre-cut piece of quilt batting, so it’s almost made to attract cats! Then again, started laying here when I did the first layout, which used a model railroad grass sheet.

@Mr. No: Yeah, she’s a very attractive kitty and also very sweet natured, if a bit skittish. She has a close bond with my daughter but she’s loving towards everybody in the family.

@ Super: I think it’s both! It’s a comfy spot that the humans have been focusing attention on lately and it’s territorial. We have another female cat around the same age and there’s a running battle for almost every horizontal space in the house.

Some additional notes: I rebuilt the layout to a single track with Trackmaster 1 track. The double track Plarail design was shifting around too much, causing collisions and derailments. I decided to forgo most of the additional details like trees and working street lamps because they get damaged too easily due to the cats and the kids. For the same reasons, I’m not using the backdrops I bought last year.

This will probably be the last year for the Christmas layout in this form. The space is limiting and stuff is too prone to damage. I’m not sure what, if anything, I’ll do in years to come.

A couple additional photos. The first is the revised tabletop Christmas layout.

[Super]

   Here is a suggestion OTR...start working on this now and keep us updated