S/O Christmas Tree Decorating...With Cats

[earthyfamily]

Any ideas on what I can do to deter my cats from wanting to climb up inside the tree and play? I've heard foil around the base or clear contact paper, sticky side up, might work....any thought? TIA!

[SonshineLearner]

You funny person :) Didn't you know... cats climb trees? Haha... seriously, I thought the same as you about my cats and that I'd be able to make it so they don't... Now I just try for them not killing themselves or breaking too many ornaments. I'd forgo the tree.. or put it on the front porch, but my husband insists... so I clean up ornaments and freak that the cat will electrocute himself chewing on the wires...

[BrookValley.]

I was going to post this exact same thing...I have no idea how I'm going to even have a tree this year. My cat is a juvenile delinquent. :glare:

[tammyw]

Growing up, our cat somehow was able to pull our tree down (real, with water in the bottom, presents soaked with water, ugh.) Since then, I've always been paranoid of trees falling down. We ALWAYS tie our tree up (in this house, we tie it to the banister two places.) My mom always had hers tied to a hook in the ceiling. Otherwise, I don't know how to prevent a cat from wanting to look, so I just look at damage prevention, lol!

[jenL]

Dh and I were just talking about this the other night since we haven't had a kitten in 12 years, and now we have one, and she is EVERYWHERE!

 

I have no idea what we are going to do... I'm thankful my tree is fake so I can just re-bend the branches and carry-on after she knocks it over (which we are fully anticipating).

[Trish]

We put up gates and confine them to the non-tree side of the house. So instead of picking up ornmanets I'm picking up falling down gates. :glare:

[Kebo]

Some ideas:

1. Buy a smaller tree and put it up on a high, sturdy table. We've done this for the past few years with a 5 ft. tree and a round club table. Works great, if your ceilings are high enough to accommodate it.

2. One year we put our tree on our covered patio. We could still see it well from inside.

[SevenDaisies]

I put up a lot of trees, and I have a cat who loves to chew any thin electrical wire. I have gotten pretty good at closing doors where computers are kept or rolling up the cords, but the trees are tricky. We have a finished basement where my cats mostly reside, although they have access to the rest of the house. However, during Christmas, they are not allowed upstairs unsupervised - the basement door and cat door are closed at night when we are in bed.

 

As I sit here she is chewing on the wire to the headphones in my ears.

[Guest]

Oh, no! This is our first Christmas (in many years) with a cat...I don't know how she will do! Maybe because she's older she won't get into it? Maybe?

[HappyLady]

I never even thought of this! I was worried about my 2 year old. :glare: I have two kittens! :willy_nilly::blink::banghead::svengo:

[jenangelcat]

I've had a lot of cats. Some climb, some don't. Most of them were smart enough to wait until we were asleep to do it. All we've ever done is anchor the tree to the wall or ceiling with string to keep it from falling. Not much damage was ever done from the climbing, just the toppling over.

[Jennay]

I was just contemplating the same thing.

My 12 year old female (and her brother when he was alive) leaves the tree and ornaments alone other than sleeping underneath on the tree skirt.

However, we got a new kitten last Christmas and he was still confined to one room at night and when we were out during the time we had decorations up.

He has a chewing problem and I think I might see a lot of destruction this year (and possibly an injured cat!) I think I will buy mutiple baby gates to put up in the doorway of our living room and just keep all the decorations in that one room. The gates would go up at night and anytime we have to leave the house. 6 baby gates will probably be cheaper than a vet bill!

I could lock him in the finished basement but there's no natural light down there and I think it would make him very unhappy.

[beaners]

I have no idea what we are going to do this year. The last few years our house had a lot of doors. The cats could open some of them, but not the door to the room the tree was in. We only decorated with nonbreakable ornaments, and closed the room most of the time. I'm not sure what we will do this year. We put the cats in our master bathroom whenever we have people over, but I can't imagine them spending most of the month of December in there.

 

And now that I think of it, I'll have to worry about the dogs too. We used gates on the doors before, but this house is just way too open. I'm also curious how some of you have used baby gates to keep your cats out of a room. Our dogs and children usually respect the gates, but none of the cats do.

[Parrothead]

For some reason it has never been an issue with any cat I've ever had. Now stopping them from tearing up the wrapping paper of the wrapped gifts under the tree is an issue I could use a bit of advice about.

 

I have weird cats.

[Kebo]

For some reason it has never been an issue with any cat I've ever had. Now stopping them from tearing up the wrapping paper of the wrapped gifts under the tree is an issue I could use a bit of advice about.

 

I have weird cats.

 

Most of mine haven't been a problem, either. But every once in a while, you run across a wild one. Our tree protection measures have also been very effective against toddlers :001_smile:

 

We have a 6 month old kitten right now that was returned from a litter we hand-raised. He IS a wild one, and I'm glad we've already got a plan.

[I talk to the trees]

Back in the 90's, there was a Shoebox Greetings card that had a woman on a ladder, sticking cows and dogs on a wall with garland. The caption read "Deck the Halls with Cows and Collies," and the woman had a little speech bubble that read, "Okay! Throw me another cow!"

 

I saw this thread title, and immediately envisioned that same cartoon woman, trimming her tree and shouting, "Okay! Throw me another cat!" :D

[Jeannie in NJ]

we are lucky that we have a family room that closes off so at night we keep the cats out of that room. When we are in the room, so are the cats and we just let them bat around ornaments. We do have some cute pictures tho of little cat faces peering out of the tree branches

[kimnc]

Luckily, my cats haven't tried to chew the wires! However, we used to have a rabbit and she would chew EVERYTHING -- so we only put lights on the top 2/3 of the tree, and stop out of reach.

The cats like to hang out under the tree and knock down the ornaments on the bottom branches. We lose at least 2 every year. :tongue_smilie:

[BrookValley.]

I would really feel awful the first time the cat got zapped (ok, well that depends on the day), but I wonder if this would be worth the $$ for a little Christmas sanity: http://www.petfenceusa.com/psu-skm-c471.html?productid=psu-skm-c471&channelid=AMAZO#.UKPj8obh68Q

[jrn]

I've learned to put my tree in a corner and tie a string in both directions to nails in the wall to keep it from falling down. We also don't decorate the bottom row of branches.

[mommymilkies]

I have found having a bigger tree helps, actually. We have a 7-8' tree and the cats mess with it a lot less than before when we had little trees. However, it does help if you don't put feathery fake birds on said tree. :tongue_smilie: I have 5 cats and it wasn't a problem last year taking the above into consideration.

[BrookValley.]

I have found having a bigger tree helps, actually. We have a 7-8' tree and the cats mess with it a lot less than before when we had little trees. However, it does help if you don't put feathery fake birds on said tree. :tongue_smilie: I have 5 cats and it wasn't a problem last year taking the above into consideration.

 

So what you're saying is, I should forget all hope of having a fabulous peacock-themed tree this year? :crying: This just keeps getting worse and worse.

[mommymilkies]

So what you're saying is, I should forget all hope of having a fabulous peacock-themed tree this year? :crying: This just keeps getting worse and worse.

 

Provided they aren't actually covered in feathers, you're probably ok. Sometimes I can get away with one at the top of a tall tree. I will say that the year we had wool angels and feathered birds on our tree was a HUGE disaster, though. :lol:

[DianeW88]

I put our tree up and leave it there without any decorations for a week. Then I set a spray bottle of water next to it. When I hear any of our kitties in the tree...they get blasted. This usually works, although my OLDEST cat is the one who always climbs it. Last year she snapped two of the bottom branches. Now I have to hope I can repair them this year. :glare:

[Jennay]

I put our tree up and leave it there without any decorations for a week. Then I set a spray bottle of water next to it. When I hear any of our kitties in the tree...they get blasted. This usually works, although my OLDEST cat is the one who always climbs it. Last year she snapped two of the bottom branches. Now I have to hope I can repair them this year. :glare:

 

My cat that is the troublemaker is impervious to being blasted with water. He just doesn't.care. He even gets in the shower.

[Jennay]

Provided they aren't actually covered in feathers, you're probably ok. Sometimes I can get away with one at the top of a tall tree. I will say that the year we had wool angels and feathered birds on our tree was a HUGE disaster, though. :lol:

 

:D LOL