Cats and Christmas Trees

[nutterbutter2010]

Our cat has pretty much distroyed our fake tree. When we are not home (or are sleeping) he climbs up it, and lays on the branches, and bends them. DH doesn't think we will even be able to get it in the box when we take it down, and thinks we will just have to throw it out. I suggested, rather than buying a new fake tree for $200, we just get a real tree next year.

So my question is - how are cats with REAL trees? I figure if he starts climbing the real one next year, and ruins that one, whats the big deal - its real and we will be throwing it out anyway.



TIA

 

[amid chaos]

My cats have never bothered with the real tree.

But the fake one has been climbed, napped on, peed on, eaten and then puked up in places like my bed.

Real trees for us.

 

[mickeyboat]

We have a 12 year old cat and a new kitten. We have a real tree and put it up last weekend. So far the old cat just likes to sit under the tree. The kitten likes to bat at the branches at the bottom, play with some unbreakable jingle bell ornaments he can reach without climbing, and play with the jingle bells on the tree skirt. He has not tried to climb it, although I think he would one he figured out he could.

Did you take pictures of your kitty ornaments?

 

[Halloweenqueen]

My cats destroyed our real trees, so fake for us.

Funny how the pets are attracted to them. My dog and two cats fight for space on the tree all season.

 

[nutterbutter2010]

We have a 12 year old cat and a new kitten. We have a real tree and put it up last weekend. So far the old cat just likes to sit under the tree. The kitten likes to bat at the branches at the bottom, play with some unbreakable jingle bell ornaments he can reach without climbing, and play with the jingle bells on the tree skirt. He has not tried to climb it, although I think he would one he figured out he could.

Did you take pictures of your kitty ornaments?

Hes like a phantom - we never actually see him on there, but we know hes been there.

 

[ChrizJen]

The worst my cats do with our artificial tree is to sleep on the tree skirt.
My 2 year old DD, on the other hand...

 

[Diznotyzed]

One of our cats thinks we put up our tree (real) just for him. He just loves to sit or sleep under it, and starts purring when we first drag it in. In 30 years with at least two cats in residence at all times we've never had one even try to climb our tree. The lower ornaments get played with, though.

 

[si-am]

We have two cats who have never bothered our real tree at all. The worst they do is bat at low-hanging ornaments (so we put plastic or cloth ones down there!) They both love to sleep under there, though. And they do manage to destroy some of the wrapping on our presents, too.


We have a tiny fake tree we put in the basement sometimes, and one of our cats just chews on that thing all day long. Last year he threw up some of the pine needles from it, so we decided that was the last time we'd ever use it! He also loves to chew on fake garland and wreaths, so we have to be careful to keep all that stuff out of his reach.

 

[DizBelle]

We have six cats and for two of them, this year will be their first experience with the Christmas tree (we didn't put it up last year as we went out of town).

The 4 older cats though don't really bother the tree. We did, once upon a time, have problems with them peeing on the tree skirt. We just don't have a tree skirt any more. I decorated a box and that disguises the bottom of the tree.

I'm reminded of Christmas 1994 I believe. We had put up a little 4 foot artificial tree on an end table. We had bungee corded the tree to the table. I came home from work and found the tree BROKEN IN HALF. I can picture it in my head. One of my cats (belive it or not he is STILL with us) climbed to the top of the tree, making like an angel (NOT), teetered up there for a couple of minutes until SNAP! Broken tree. Funny, he never messed with the bigger tree once we got it.

I always find this entertaining at Christmas: http://www.fluffytails.ca/christmas.asp

 

[jspahn]

I gave up on a tree when i had 3 cats. Now I have 5 and there's no way I'd put one up.
For a few years I actually put "net" lights on the cieling and then hung ornaments from the light strands so it at least felt xmas-y. And the cats couldnt reach them!

 

[Darsa]

With our real tree, one of our cats ignores it, the other two lay on the tree skirt under it and glare at each other. So far no climbing, scratching or eating!

 

[Imzadi]

I just don't get this. I mean, I do, but I don't. You don't see cats outdoors hiding in, laying in or climbing evergreen trees. These type of trees are much too pokey and scratchy. Why do cats have this obsession when one comes indoors?

 

[Them!]

I put the vacuum (they HATE that machine!) right up next to the tree while I sleep or out. I have "fraidy cats" so this might not work with all felines...
My big old cats have a Dyson Phobia. LOL

 

[DMRick]

I just don't get this. I mean, I do, but I don't. You don't see cats outdoors hiding in, laying in or climbing evergreen trees. These type of trees are much too pokey and scratchy. Why do cats have this obsession when one comes indoors?

My foster kittens always act like I have brought them home a new toy, when the tree goes up. And it takes time, but you can unsmash a messed up fake tree.
We can't plug ours in, because the babies are teething (kittens).

 

[Imzadi]

My foster kittens always act like I have brought them home a new toy, when the tree goes up.

Ah, now it makes sense. Everytime I bring in a new package, my cat thinks I brought in a new box for her to play with. I actually have to leave the empty packing box on the floor for her to investigate and sit in for a while. She get's very miffed if I don't do that.

 

[englishteacha]

We got our kitty on December 26, 2002, so the tree was up. She investigated it, drank from the stand, but didn't bother it. She likes to sleep on the tree skirt. She was very confused when we took it out. In the next several Christmasses she played with some ornaments but she hasn't bothered the tree. We brought our tree in today (we always have real) and she looked at it, sniffed it, and has since ignored it.

 

[justhat]

We have 2 kittens who are completely terrorizing our tree. We have a tiny (4ft or so) fake tree that I bought when my son was 1yo cause he was a terror (and still is), so I didn't think they could harm it much. I was wrong. They sit *in* the tree, have broken a ton of ornaments (all up high, so they climbed to get them), bent all the branches, etc. We're moving this summer though and getting a new tree, either real or fake, next year so I shouldn't worry too much, but it is still so annoying!

 

[agnes!]

My DH at first wanted me to put up our fake tree. But then I reminded him that our one cat likes to eat ANYTHING that looks like a plant or just used to be a plant and that we are going to be away for about 5 days during Christmas and it might not be a good idea to leave the cats alone with a full-sized tree that Ralf will regard as a minching buffet...

So DD & I went out today and got a small live tree from Trader Joe's with battery-powered lights. We're going to have that up between now and when we leave, then put the live tree outside while we're gone.

And we might take the battery-powered lights with us to put up in our hotel room for the actual holiday.

agnes!

 

[princessdi81]

I'm not sure, because we've never had a real tree. Out of all of our cats, we never had any issues 'til we adopted a feral. He thought it needed to be climbed and somehow encouraged the others to do the same - the tree doesn't fare well when there's a 15+ pound cat trying to climb it :-( Needless to say, we've not had a Christmas tree in over 5 years.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My cats loved the real tree last year! They were only about 4 months old, and both climbed right up it at points. They liked to just go up and sniff it, and slept under it often, as well. They also played with ornaments, so we make sure the easy-to-get-to ones are not breakable. This year's should go up this weekend. I'm both looking forward to the amusement of watching them and dreading what they might do.