![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Ad_Cartoon_MisterMax_Anti-Icky-Poo-300x300.jpg\" "\\"Ad_Cartoon_MisterMax_Anti-Icky-Poo\\"")
<\/p>\nBy \u00a0Jan Nieman<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,<\/p>\n
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.<\/p>\n
We went off to church and left both pets in charge<\/p>\n
And upon our return, was a mess very large.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kris burst into tears and cried, \u201cWhere could they be?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chocolates I bought aren\u2019t under the tree.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four Hershey bars for her brothers were gone,<\/p>\n
And Gypsy and Chessie knew they did wrong.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The wrappers were scattered throughout the room<\/p>\n
And the dog and the cat decided to zoom.<\/p>\n
They knew they were guilt about their spree,<\/p>\n
And upchucked the chocolates behind the tree.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dad drove to a drug-store with daughter in tow,<\/p>\n
To purchase more candy and soften the blow.<\/p>\n
I raced the pets to the vet to see what was wrong,<\/p>\n
For pets eating chocolate wouldn\u2019t live very long.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They were OK, and the following year<\/p>\n
Dad said, \u201cNo food gifts left out in the clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Grandma forgot and hid all of her candy<\/p>\n
Under her bed, which the pets thought quite handy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She left her door open while we went to church<\/p>\n
And Gypsy and Chessie started their search.<\/p>\n
Two little rascals found the box in a minute<\/p>\n
And again spoiled a Christmas with chocolate in it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The next year we knew to follow Dad\u2019s rule,<\/p>\n
But one of his students in Church Sunday School<\/p>\n
The week before Christmas gave him a box.<\/p>\n
It went under the tree. He thought it was socks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But Gypsy and Chessie knew better than he.<\/p>\n
And again sniffed out chocolates under the tree.<\/p>\n
Thoroughly disgusted, we didn\u2019t fly to the vet\u2019s,<\/p>\n
We were mad as could be with both of the pets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A new law was spoken that very same day<\/p>\n
Gifts under the tree would exist in no way,<\/p>\n
Until Christmas morning and right after breakfast.<\/p>\n
And never again did the pets spoil a Christmas!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Merry Christmas to all my readers (and eat chocolate!)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By \u00a0Jan Nieman \u2018Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. We went off to church and left… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}