Kitties and Christmas trees!

Printable View

11-11-2002, 07:13 PM
All Creatures Great And Small

Kitties and Christmas trees!

Well, it's almost that time of year, when some of us decorate our houses for Christmas, and then the kitties try to un-decorate!
Let's hear some stories and hopefully see some pictures of how your kitties behave during the holidays!

We've always had real trees - I remember when I was a kid, having at least 2 Christmas trees tipped over by kitties. (We finally started putting a screw-type eye in the wall behind the tree and tying the tree to the wall with some twine:eek:. One kitty, our big 25-pounder, got almost to the top of the tree before it tipped over.) If I remember correctly, this usually happened in the middle of the night. My mom started spraying the trees with that Hartz Indoor NO stuff - all my childhood Christmas memories involve the horrible smell of that spray! (Which never worked, by the way):p

Then, when I got married and got my own kitty, we had to put metal rabbit-type fencing around the base of the tree to keep the kitty away, because she was very young and goofy. The year after that, we had a kitty AND a toddler in the house, so we skipped the tree altogether and just had a lighted wreath hanging on the wall (LAME! :p ) When girl kitty got older, she stopped knocking ornaments off the tree and just liked to lay under it like the best Christmas gift ever, after having a refreshing drink from the tree stand. One year I wrapped up some especially pungent catnip mice for my mom's kitties, but as soon as I put them under the tree, my girl kitty started batting the package around. I had to put it away until Mom came over for Christmas. Even then, my kitty sat right at her feet while she opened the box, and then "tested" the catnip mice for Mom's kitties (they passed inspection:D). The Christmas just before she died, when she was 14, I woke up one morning and found one lone ornament sitting on the floor next to the tree, and some chew marks on the edges of some of the gifts - she wanted to have one last fling, I guess.

Now, we have this fairly young and silly boy kitty, and we didn't even give him a chance to get at the tree - before we even put it up, we went to Home Depot and bought an actual wooden interior door with glass panels, put some "feet" on it, and stood it in the opening between the hallway and the living room, since there's no door there. It was kind of a pain to have to slide it out of the way, but we figured it was better than having a tipped tree. When he was allowed in the living room, he would immediately start drinking the water out of the tree stand, and then he would rub his nose against the tree branches and try to chew on them. This will be our first Christmas with an artificial tree, but we have all glass ornaments on the tree, and a lot of them are family heirlooms, so I'll probably still have to put up the "holiday door".
11-11-2002, 07:57 PM
neko1

We cannot put up a tree anymore cause my kitties are HORRIBLE with it!! The first year we moved into the house and put up the artificial tree, we decided to leave the house for a couple of hours. When we returned their were shattered ornaments as far as the eye can see!! In the living room, kitchen, hallway...So then I decided to supervise them with the tree. Well they like to chew the cord of the lights, eat the fake pine needles, and also eat the garland thus breaking it in different spots so you can't string it across the tree. So one year I decided to put up the tree and lock the cats up in their room when we weren't around but that is not fair to them to have to be locked up for a month! So this year (as well as last year) we have no tree out. OH yeah and they also like to vomit on my quilted tree skirt!!
11-11-2002, 08:07 PM
All Creatures Great And Small

NAWTEE KATS!:D :p :D :p But I know you'd rather have them than a Christmas tree anyway........:)
11-11-2002, 08:44 PM
wolflady

LOL Christmas is one of those times when our feline friends tend to act out. It must be exciting to have a tree...inside! :eek: Aren't all those dangly things supposed to batted around the room? :rolleyes:
Socks (my mom and dad's cat) really loves tinsel. Every year, we usually put the "icicle" tinsel on the tree, and lately we start it up a little higher in hopes that he won't eat it. It can't be good.

I'll never forget the one year when everyone was at the house for Christmas and Socks had eaten some of that tinsel. We were blessed with not only tinsel-tootsie-rolls in the sand box, but also tinsel butt!! Socks must have felt festive with the strand of tinsel hanging out of his rear-end...and parading around the house! :eek:
11-11-2002, 10:55 PM
Miss Meow

Quote:

Originally posted by neko1
... OH yeah and they also like to vomit on my quilted tree skirt!!

Ewwwwwww!!!

Ours haven't had a real Christmas yet, this will be their first. I'm really looking forward to the destruction, cleaning and repairs!
11-12-2002, 12:07 AM
Sara luvs her Tinky

I got Tinky for Christmas last year... and our fully decorated tree soon became bald from the floor up three feet in a matter of a week or so. But she was soooooo cute we just couldn't get her in trouble. She started climbing to the top and you could see her little paw sticking out batting at the ornaments and by the time the tree came down we had a big pile of ornaments behind it. THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT.... seeing how we have two kitties and my Jupiter is a whopping 15 pounds... we WILL NOT be letting them climb the tree this year.... or so we hope... ;)
11-12-2002, 01:29 AM
Nomilynn

We haven't really had problems with cats climbing the trees before, but breaking ornaments is a favourite passtime. I don't have a big tree at this house; just a small ceramic one. When I get to my parents, however, it will be interesting to see if we can keep Nutmeg (this is her first christmas) out of the tree and nativity scene!!
11-12-2002, 02:08 AM
Former User

Year ago was our first x-mas with cats around, and I was so worried in advance. But, my godness, Casper and Kitty behaved, and counting out the few times they pat a x-mas ball in the tree, they left all the x-mas ornaments alone. I was seeing scary pics infront of my eyes where both of the cats were hanging on the tree and ornaments, but nope, didn't happen. I think I even posted a thread about that, because I was so amazed that the treee was still up :rolleyes: . Let's see what happens this year then...
11-12-2002, 05:17 AM
Vio&Juni

Well, I couldn't even immagine that there are cats in the world that wouldn't even touch the ornaments. Juni is a fairly well behaved kitty, she only likes to play with the glass globes and the shiny tinsel. Well, it's our merit also that the trees stay almost intact, we have learnt our lesson. Now, we put the Xmas tree on a chair, and far from the couch or any other higher thing, so, she only gets to the lowest branches he-he.
Vasea showed us what a kitty thinks about a Xmas tree. First, the tree was cleaned of globes (all broken in pieces), then the shiny tinsel was chewed up and even after a month I could find pieces in every corner of the house, BUT... it was not enough. And I was absolutely mad that I don't have a camera ready to take a picture of what he's doing. He leaned his hind legs against the tree and with the front paws grabbed it and stated shaking it very firmly. He shook it with such an anger and it was so funny !!! He shook it until there was nothing left on it, just bold branches. We had to throw it away the same day, it was December 25. Normally people here keep the Xmas tree very long, about 3-4 weeks. We had it for one day only.
Naomi liked only a green glass globe and a green shiny tinsel. She would touch them as she passes by and admire how they shine, then mind her own business.
11-12-2002, 05:50 AM
Barbara

So what should I say? I've been collecting Christmas ornaments since I was a teenager and have some wonderful spheres and waxen ornaments. I really liked our tree and I put beeswax candles on -real light not an artificial one :( :( :( :(
This was the past -now we have Tigris and Filou and heaven knows they are better than any Christmas tree. I have no idea whether coniferes are good for them but I guess no. And it's definitely not good if someone steps in broken glass...
I decorate the windows a little and have some branches (and have the water spray bottle close) but I agree it's not the same.
11-12-2002, 07:37 AM
All Creatures Great And Small

Quote:

I'll never forget the one year when everyone was at the house for Christmas and Socks had eaten some of that tinsel. We were blessed with not only tinsel-tootsie-rolls in the sand box, but also tinsel butt!! Socks must have felt festive with the strand of tinsel hanging out of his rear-end...and parading around the house!

:D :D :D LOL!!!!! Back in the "stone age", when I was a kid, the icicles were actually made of LEAD, which would have been deadly for pets. Nowadays they're plastic, so they just add some "roughage" to the cat's diet;).

Quote:

He leaned his hind legs against the tree and with the front paws grabbed it and stated shaking it very firmly. He shook it with such an anger and it was so funny !!! He shook it until there was nothing left on it, just bold branches.

:D :D :D This is cracking me up! I guess he got tired of picking the ornaments off one at a time;).

Quote:

We had to throw it away the same day, it was December 25. Normally people here keep the Xmas tree very long, about 3-4 weeks. We had it for one day only.

This is fun to hear about Christmas in other countries - in the US, most people put their trees up WAY before Xmas, sometimes as early as the end of November. By the time Christmas comes, a real tree is looking mighty limp and you're ready to chuck it out on the 26th!
11-12-2002, 07:59 AM
sasvermont

Plywood worked for me.

I put up a tree last year and anchored it to a big piece of plywood. It seemed to work. They did not scale the tree but they did play under it and knocked off most of the decorations at the botton. I put non-breakables at the botton. Also non-edibles.

The funny thing was in Feb. of each year they go to the Vet for a checkup (more than what I do for myself most years) and the Vet found a pine needle in Miley's ear canal, left over from the Christmas tree in December! It never bothered her. Go figure.

All in all, my guys have been good with the tree, other plants and flowers. Fingers crossed.

;)
11-12-2002, 08:25 AM
Barbara

Quote:

Originally posted by All Creatures Great And Small

This is fun to hear about Christmas in other countries - in the US, most people put their trees up WAY before Xmas, sometimes as early as the end of November. By the time Christmas comes, a real tree is looking mighty limp and you're ready to chuck it out on the 26th!

in Germany you put it up the 24th of December and you keep it until January 6th (or even longer).
Most people have the Nativity scene there too and you add the camels and the Holy Kings the 6th of January. From the beginning of December you have a wreath with 4 candles, for each week until Christmas.
11-12-2002, 08:30 AM
Vio&Juni

Well, most of Moldovans celebrate Xmas on January 7, I celebrate it on December 25. That's why people keep the Xmas tree so long.
11-12-2002, 08:51 AM
smokey the elder

I have the great good fortune of having a dining room with French glass doors. The tree goes on my oversized trestle table. The cats are allowed to "supervise" the decorating process and to be in there if we're home. They have been very good.

I see a lot of people use tinsel. I don't because, like any stringy substance, can damage the intestines if swallowed. I don't want to deal with decorated kitty backsides, either. :eek:
11-12-2002, 10:06 AM
Vio&Juni

Quote:

decorated kitty backsides

LOL
11-12-2002, 10:23 AM
Edwina's Secretary

When Edwina first joined us we had a natural tree and worried what she would do. Other than interest in the water, some initial curious sniffing and an occasional swat at the low hanging ornaments -- she ignored the tree. (In fact the tree did fall over once but she was no where in the room. I'm afraid my husband and I were responsible for a poor job of setting it.)

After we moved we found a fabulous artifical tree in the attic. I miss the smell of a natural tree but I don't miss the fire hazard and the needle mess! And Edwina seems to enjoy this tree more. She LOVES to sit under it and look for all the world as All Creatures describes it...the best present of all.
11-12-2002, 10:26 AM
wolf_Q

LOL at these stories! Especially "tinsel butt" teeheeehee. I don't have a cat, but I have dogs that enjoy ruining the Christmas tree...errr...presents. Smokey *really* likes to unwrap presents. So much, that we've often had to wrap his presents about 10 times before christmas, and he sometimes surprises us by opening random people's gifts also! LOL. Reggie and Smokey also enjoy laying under the tree on the skirt, which often knocks all the lower ornaments off. This will be my first Christmas with Nebo...the holy terror...I'm afraid to find out what will happen! ;)
11-12-2002, 12:23 PM
Cataholic

When it was just Tex and I, there was very few problems, other than an occasional chewed ribbon. But, one year, we had a kitten in the house, so no tree, then, more cats, and someone was always a kitten at some point.

Now, I just use boughs, and decorate with them. Truthfully, I don't love the mess, ruining the walls by bringing a tree in, clean up...ect. Plus, I get so sad seeing all the dead Christmas trees the first week in January...
11-12-2002, 12:45 PM
Former User

Quote:

Originally posted by Barbara

in Germany you put it up the 24th of December and you keep it until January 6th (or even longer).
Most people have the Nativity scene there too and you add the camels and the Holy Kings the 6th of January. From the beginning of December you have a wreath with 4 candles, for each week until Christmas.

We have this in Finland too. We get the x-mas tree inside at the morning of 24th and get rid of it (to put it not so nicely) at the 6th of January.
11-12-2002, 01:07 PM
Pam

No Christmas trees any more for us. :( Trevor was fine with our trees even when he was a little kitten. He'd just go underneath and lay there looking so darn cute! Andy came along and he is a terror when there is a tree in the house. He can't leave the ornaments alone and even tugs on the strings of lights. The first year or two with him I really tried and I would just move the ornaments higher and higher until finally, usually around New Year's Eve, only the top half was decorated. :rolleyes: The last couple of years I threw in the towel and I have been using a small table top fiber optic tree and I string a lighted garland over the archway to my dining room and put a couple of ornaments on it. Andy has knocked down the little tree a couple of times but there's nothing to clean up and no water spilled. I did find fiber optic 'treasures' while scooping his box. Now how in the world could that have tasted good. :rolleyes:
11-12-2002, 02:08 PM
Tubby & Peanut's Mom

Here's my little present 16 years ago. He batted at some of the lower hanging ornaments, but never really bothered with the tree. He's such a good boy, and always has been. :D Peanut doesn't bother them either. I think she's more afraid of having something fall on her.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...2/fdc4919a.jpg

Amazing that he fit in that box. He'd completely crush it these days. :rolleyes: :D
11-12-2002, 02:57 PM
BastetsMum

Whats a Christmas tree?

I have an abysinnian .... need I say more :D
11-12-2002, 03:29 PM
Barbara

Hey Bastetsmum, last year I was on a cat show and the judge there wanted to show people how different the character of kittens could be: There was a cute black British Short hair: he could hang it over his arm like a towel -the kitten relaxed completely. Then there was a 12 week old Aby...... You can imagine -he had a feather toy and little Aby went crazy.
I think for them a natural tree with some feather ornaments would be the purrfect Christmas gift.
11-12-2002, 03:32 PM
sasvermont

Guess who? Graemer!

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...d/fd0d3b5b.jpg

He could not contain himself. That ornament didn't last long. Thank goodness it was made of cardboard.:rolleyes:
11-12-2002, 03:37 PM
sasvermont

What a riot!

I just went into Google and did a search for "cat in Christmas tree" and look which photo popped up first!

http://www.abyssinians.co.uk/images/gabi_redtinsel.jpg

:D :D :D
11-12-2002, 06:46 PM
Pam

'Twas da night before Christmas

I am probably rushing the season, since it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I just came across this and it had me laughing out loud. :)

'Twas da night before Christmas
And all thru da house.
Not a creetchur was stirrin',
Not even dat mouse!
Mommy and Daddy was safe in deir bed
But I couldn't get da mousie outta my head!
So I went to da kitchen and looked all around,
And you wouldn't believe what I did found!

Dere on da table dere was a great site-
A glass of milk had been left in the night!
So I got up on da table and dranked it all gone
And ate half a cookie and layed down and yawned

When outside da house, their arose such a racket,
I jumped on da floor, gettin ready to attack it!
I got real low, so da monsters wouldn't see me
And puffed out my fur and hid under da tree

When what, to my big green eyes did appear,
But a great big red guy with a fuzzy white beard!
The beard swayed around and enticed me a bit
So I wiggled my butt and jumped upon on it!

The red guy was surprised and felled on da tree
"Uh-oh!" I thought. Mom and Dad will blame me!
So I ran up da stairs and I got out of site
And I didn't go down for da rest of da night.

In da morning I slowly approached Mom and Dad.
You shoulda seen da big mess that they had!
But when they seed me they just smiled and sighed.
So I head-butted Momma and purred by Dad's side.

And dis next part still bring tears to my eyes.
But Momma and Daddy had a surprise:
Da big red guy with da fuzzy white beard
Had left me a gift for bein' good all year
11-13-2002, 04:13 AM

That poem is very special Pam !!! It comes right out a cat's heart . It is funny , but also touching ... . Thanks !

About a tree ... . With Sydney , who died this summer , there was no problem at all . He never touched the tree nor the ornaments . The only "bad" thing he did , was that he loved to mess up the tree-skirt (a quilt I got as a present from our American friends , Mr. & Mrs. Kruse) .
I fear that we will definitely have a problem this year . Maya will be okay , I think . But little Inka cannot resist anything that is hanging or standing close enough for her to reach ... . Oh my , I cannot stand not to have tree ; we had this the year we moved into our new house (move was on Dec. 16 , 2000) ; Christmas is not the same without a decorated Christmas tree ...:(
11-13-2002, 05:41 AM
neko1

Abyssinians and Christmas trees definately don't go together!!
11-13-2002, 12:33 PM
Tubby & Peanut's Mom

That's a great poem, Pam! It's so typical of a cat, but it was sweet when they just sighed so he head butted momma and purred by dad's side.

Cute. :D
11-13-2002, 01:30 PM
zookeeper

Cam does nto really bother with the real tree, he likes to hide under it and drink the water and play with the bows on the gifts but he does nto touch the tree or ornaments. We have a small fake tree that we use to decorate the rec room in the basement and Cam goes nuts on it. He swats of decorations, eats the branches you name it. We are still finding mini-bulbs from last Christmas hding around the basement:rolleyes: We will continue to put up this tree, though as I have come to think of it as Cam's tree. It's a bit battered but I prefer that he abuses this tree than the real one with all the really beautiful ornaments.
11-13-2002, 04:09 PM
Miss Meow

T&Ps Mom and SAS, cute pictures!

We have a real tree (a small spruce in a pot) so I hope it's prickly enough to minimise the damage. Then again, I'm sure by day two of having it decorated I'll be pulling my hair out :)
11-13-2002, 10:42 PM
krazyaboutkatz

I haven't even tried to put up a tree since I've had my cats. Now that I have Sunny, he's half aby, there's no way that I'm going to get a tree. Storm likes to eat plants so I think he'd also try to eat a tree. I just hang wreaths up high so my 3 cats can't reach them. :)
11-14-2002, 10:03 AM
Tubby & Peanut's Mom

I found another picture of Tubby with a Christmas tree - that is still standing. ;) :p

I've got this marked as Tubby's second Christmas, so he's not quite two years old here. He's sitting so nice looking at the tree, but you can see his eyes are quite big and I'm sure I had to shoo him away after I took this picture. :eek:

This was at my Mom's house, and it must have been time for all the relatives to visit because we never had a pile of presents under the tree like that just for us. :o

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...c/fd0c1dec.jpg
11-14-2002, 06:55 PM
BigCharles

People don't think that this is true, but it was one of my introductions to cats.

My buddy, Thundering Bull, had two cats (this was years back as he has five now) and was frustrated by them always knocking over the tree.

He put down a wooden plank and got three springs. He attached one spring between each leg of the tree stand and the plank. He then screwed the plank to the floor ant put up the tree. Problems solved - - - or so he thought.

I come into the room to find both cats in the tree. Cat number one was right at the top batting at the Angel and cat number two was half way up.

When cat number two got 3/4 of the way up the tree swayed to one side. It got to about a 45 degree angle and cat number two let go and dropped to the floor. - - - Then the springs took over.

Cat number one got launched. Not all that far realy, but watching that poor cat sailing backward through the air with the Angel in hot pusuit way too much! I broke out laughing.

They gave up trying to climb the tree after that and just went to attacking the balls attached to the low branches.
11-16-2002, 01:19 PM
RICHARD

CATastrophe..

tilting trees, tinsel turds, decorated derrieres, wrecked wrapping,
batted balls, accelerating angels.......

i guess being a guy makes the 'adventures of a tree thrashing cat'
more entertaining...A few years back i watched (with a certain amount of sick glee) two cats terrorize the tree and their mom.

mom had the idea that the tree would be a GOOD THING to do for xmas. ( i knew better....my bro in law once had to move a tree because the dog jumped on the table, ate a whole ham and then proceeded to puke it up behind the Xmas tree......but i digress..)

It came down to me having to let her in to the door first so she wouldn't see me laughing at the destruction her cats had wrought. i kept score of the balls knocked off the tree, timed the world record sprints as they ran from the tipping tree......enjoyed the look on their sweet faces as she walked in on them batting the ornaments to and fro..watching them march from under the tree with tinsel hanging from their fur...

this year my only problem is trying to figure out if it's gonna be a four or five foot tree!