Yesterday Vince and I put up the Christmas tree and I say that and laugh because it’s not a live tree and it’s pre-lit. I was telling Vince that when I was a kid, we’d go out in the woods behind our house and choose the perfect Christmas tree. Knowing it would have huge bare spots when we brought it out away from the other trees, my dad would cut down a second tree. Don’t think we were being wasteful. The trees in there were growing too close together and before I ever got out of school, they came in and cut them all down and put in a subdivision.
Dad would cut limbs off the extra tree and nail them to the real tree and sooner or later, we had a tree that mom agreed we could use. Then we strung the lights on it, hung all the balls, hung everything on it that halfway resembled Christmas and thought we had the most beautiful tree in the world.
We got the tree up and Vince even commented that we made a good choice. We have a skirt and I put it out after we took the picture. I’m hoping Addie can come this weekend and help us decorate the tree.
The problem .. and now I’m remembering another reason why a cat in the house is a problem. Boots has been so mesmerized by the Christmas lights across the street, we couldn’t wait for him to see our tree. What do you think he did? Tried to eat the tree! We took him back to the sewing room. Later, I put the gate up at the top of the stairs. Vince was downstairs watching the game and Boots came up the stairs, looked at the tree, looked at the gate, tried to figure out what to do and went back downstairs. About 10 minutes later, he came running up the stairs, sailed over the gate and attacked the Christmas tree. Back to the sewing room . . where he may have to stay til after Christmas!
Vince took my spray bottle and added Clorox to it to clean something outside so I need to find another one and see if misting him will keep him away from the tree.
Joan B says
Just wait until there are dangling ornaments! Boots will like it even more! Our cat knocked our tree over one year so we tied it up to the curtain rod after that.
Ruth says
I take it there was no label on your cat misting sprayer that said “CAT MISTING SPRAYER” and so Vince thought it wasn’t necessary to your life.
We zoomed with our kids last night, and someone mentioned how their cat was eating their tree. My hubby said he’d never heard of that. I can tell he doesn’t read blogs…
Judy Laquidara says
No. He asked if I had another spray bottle. I think we have another one here – I’ll have to look. He was rebuilding some storage units in the garage and needed to spray Clorox on something to clean it so I figured he needed the bottle more than I did.
Verna A. says
Not only do some of our three cats chew on the tree, but one of them climbs up in the branches. In ten years they haven’t knocked it over (yet), but one year we tied it to the curtain rod, and they chewed through the string. We don’t put bows or ribbons on the gifts under the tree as they chew on those. At least they leave the ornaments and lights alone! Sometimes they’re trouble, but we wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Joye Cox says
I had a kitty one time that would climb up the tree and knock the angel off the top. She was afraid of the vacuum cleaner so I parked it beside the tree and problem solved!
Judy Laquidara says
I wonder if there’s anything Boots is afraid of . . besides me with my spray bottle.
Joye Cox says
I had a kitty that would climb up the tree and knock the angel off the top. She was afraid of the vacuum cleaner so I parked it beside the tree. Problem solved!
Marcie says
My Dad would also try to fill in bare spots on our (purchased Scotch Pine) trees. I remember him laying on the floor with a drill to insert a branch or two, and I presume perhaps tie it in! I’d forgotten – what a great reminder of a loving memory.
A not so great memory for my Mom was when Dad added green food coloring to the watering area in the tree stand and it leaked down into the new carpet. OOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Judy Laquidara says
Oh, no! A forever green mark on the new carpet! That’s funny now but I know it wasn’t funny to your parents.
Dottie Newkirk says
Our first Christmas 54 years ago, we had a real tree and beautiful hand blown German glass ornaments. Sadly, our cats thought they were the prettiest/bestest toys ever. After 2 ended up broken, I re-hung them on the upper branches and they left them alone.
Other cats, over the years, were interested but didn’t really mess with the tree – they preferred to “sleep” under it on the treeskirt, until the presents appeared. They were more miffed that their wonderful bed was inaccessible and did what they could to move presents out of the way :-).
Linda in NE says
The first year we had our current cats they lived in the garage until right after Christmas when it got really, really cold. So they came in. They were interested in the tree but didn’t bother it until New Year’s Eve about midnight. So, there I was taking the tree down at midnight. I have a picture of one hanging in the middle of the tree, looking out as if to say, help, how do I get out of here. Now that they’re older they might bat an ornament or two but that’s it. They like to lay under tree so when I put presents under it I leave a path so they can get to the back. Makes them happy!
Joyce says
My parents’ cat was pretty good about leaving the Christmas tree alone other than trying to eat tinsel the first year. After that my parents stopped using tinsel. Lady (the cat) loved the train my Dad had around the base of the tree. He would turn it on, and she would lie there and watch it circle the track. Once in a while she would stick a paw out to try and catch it, but I don’t think she knocked it off the track. My Dad did keep an eye on her when the train was going though. As cats go, she was an anomaly for leaving the Christmas decorations alone. She did chew on the corners of packages. I laughed the year I got a mountain dulcimer as a gift. It was in a case, and I just slid the wrapping paper off. Immediately Lady crawled into the wrapping paper, and turned around so just her head was sticking out. She looked like she was a wrapped gift under the tree. LOL
wanda jordan says
Couldn’t post on other cat post. You can get some stuff called Flora for cats from Chewy. Seems to work for my daughter 3 cats. So you’ve not changed foods have you? Cats don’t like food changes at all. They will have stomach issues . Check out Chewy see what they have I think she gets a food for hairballs there too.
Now our cat plays with a plain old pipe cleaner each night about 8 pm and a stuffed rat I put catnip on. He is a huge cat weighs 25 lbs and his head is about as big and 2 fist and his feet 2 finger wide. Cats come in all sizes we had 2 simaese one skinney and one fat. So don’t worry till vets says so.Unless get worst and throws up more.
Sara Fridley says
Our cat knocked over the tree 2 different years – when he was young. But mostly he just liked to lay under on the tree skirt – hidden among the gifts. Hope Boots loses interest quickly. He sounds like a very smart cat. And if not he will be fine living in the sewing room like before.
JustGail says
I had to keep the “good” ornaments at least 3 feet from the floor, as the cats would pull them off and use them as toys. Sometimes I found them intact, sometimes not. And yes, they’d climb up the inside of the tree, sleep on the bottom branches, mess up the tree skirt, swipe the bows, and chew on the branches. Usually the shenanigans lasted for a week or so, until the newness of the tree wore off.
Rebecca says
We had a cat who would climb up on the arm of the couch next to the tree, and bat ONE ornament off each day. Fortunately, those were styrofoam Hummel-decorated ornaments! The same cat liked to eat ribbon, which was really not good for her. I’m pretty sure she threw it up, before we stopped using it! I’ve never had a cat try to eat a tree, though.
Nelle Coursey says
When we had cats, they loved the tree! And the ornaments! You ever see a tree that only had ornaments on the top half of it!! LOL That is what we had to do. We also had a problem with them drinking the water from the real trees!! They would hide in there and not always at the bottom of the tree!
Laura says
We always hang fresh lemon, lime or orange peel from the bottom branches. Cats absolutely hate citrus, so that keeps them away from the tree.
Amy in PA says
Yes! I hear orange peels beneath the tree work really well! My cat could care less about the tree, thank goodness.