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T'is the season and I'm feeling rather "nostalgic" here at the ranch. The country side is beautiful and maybe my change to the day shift is playing part of it, too. Yesterday, I saw someone driving home with their tree.
T'is the season and I'm feeling rather "nostalgic" here at the ranch. The country side is beautiful and maybe my change to the day shift is playing part of it, too. Yesterday, I saw someone driving home with their tree.
But are Christmas trees and cats compatible?
Depends on the cats! At one time I had five adult cats and none of them had any interest in the tree. Then I got a kitten who was hell on wheels and I KNEW it would be a daily fight with her so, no tree. lol
I had one kitten that knocked off every ornament on the lower level of branches. Learned quickly just to use safe fabric coated ornaments, definitely no glass...
He adopted one ornament as his favorite toy for the rest of his life.
Two pairs of brother and sisters, one adopted stray.
The older brother and sister are 14. Izzy spends most of the time in her cave except she does come out at night or at least, when I was on night shift. Gizzy has gotten very territorial in his older years and, I guess, might spray the tree.
Melas is the adopted stray, a caught and release. She's my lap kitty.
Kara and Dirk are the new kittens, rescued from the wild, and they just got fixed. They are the wild ones, Kara climbs me, and right now, their Elizabethian collars of shame may be the only thing that slows them down......but Kara climbs to the moon.
It may, if it is to be, just be a tree, very few ornaments. Of the few ornaments I inherited, most are unicorns and most are in the curio cabinets.
So how have others handled bringing a new tree into the house?
I have had cats that ignored the tree, and cats that would knock them over, remove the ornaments. and eat the icicles. I have been lucky to never have had a climber. I stopped putting the icicles on years ago because they will inevitably be eaten, and can cause serious problems for the cat. One year, I had to actually tie the tree to a table to keep it upright.
Right now, we have six cats. Three of them are still very young (my husband found them under our truck) and one of them in particular is a demon that messes with anything and everything, is fearless, and just plain evil. This year, we put up our small white artificial tree that is pre-lighted. There are no ornaments on it, so they pretty much leave it alone except for one kitty that likes to pretend she is a gift under the tree. It's still pretty to look at and my ornaments are safe. Maybe next year we can try the ornaments when the kittens are older.
If it was my older cats, now gone to the Mother, then I'd say it would be more the individual. The cats I had when I was out in California either avoided the tree entirely or thought it was cat extacy. Knocking over shiny things like shiny glass balls was the best, and seemed to rouse the house. Mom bought some cheap ones and kept the ones saved from her mom safely stored.
I never had problems with ordiments with my guys, but they were sure you brought in a great new climbing toy. Mostly they climbed up the middle and found a branch which held them and DARED the others. Broken ordiments, and tinsel was everywhere. I trimmed off the branches after the holiday so they'd be heavier, and left it in the corner and it was the very best toy ever. Just don't put it to where its an easy place to land on the dvr or the tv or the other toys which have sparkly lights.
My two kittens, I'm sure would be sitting just under the top batting at each other to see who got to climb to the top and win the game.
But generally speaking, if your tree stuff is cherished old family stuff, put the tree or the cats behind a see thru door. It's like staggerd book shelves, put just there so they have an easy way to reach the ceiling or some shelf with lots of things to fall.
I bought a half-circle artificial tree that hangs on the wall out of the reach of my dogs and cats. It came with lights but I put my own ornaments on it.
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