Concerned about spending all day with family you love but find hard to talk to about a number of subjects? Coming from such a family (as recounted by my sister The Wood Elf in a post about pre-election e-mail), I can offer one subject that is probably safe and may be unifying—love of animals and pets.

I formed friendships here on OS with bloggers with whom I disagree about politics but with whom I share a passion for animals back when I was helping The Weasel assemble her cabinet (if your pet would like to hold a cabinet position, see here and let me know).

While browsing Kerry’s blog one day, I found this amusing cat video, which I e-mailed to non-OS friends. In reply, my niece who is a college student at Hanover (and part of the family whose politics are at the other end of the spectrum from my own) sent me another You Tube cat video that I think is absolutely hilarious.

If this doesn’t make your relatives and friends smile, they may need to have their sense of humor examined. It starts slow, but then really gets on a roll. Hang on tight and don’t look away.

Hope maybe you can share this tomorrow to jump-start a discussion on a safe subject! If you exhaust pets and animals, I’ve found that looking through old family photos can be a fun way to spend time together too.

Mary’s Thanksgiving post with our wishes for you & your family can be read here if you haven’t checked it out yet.

For OS in-joke entertainment, check out my Steve’s updated post BREAKING NEWS: Behind Blue Eyes’ identity revealed UPDATE!!

Also, ddcatwoman has another funny cat video here.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!