Cats and Christmas Trees

[angie3881]

Bob, is 18 lbs big and still climbs into the tree. How he gets his big butt up there, I have no idea, but he does it. All of my branches are bent, ornaments broken. Maybe I will just skip the tree this year. Ughghhh, Bob...

 

[terrilhb]

I have to tie mine to the wall.

 

[Godsgrl]

In almost 22 years of marriage, 4 kids, and several pets, we've only had our tree topple once. And that was because our golden retriever caught his tail in the garland, and pulled the tree with him as he walked away. This year, however, we have two ferrets, and I'm a bit concerned.

We'll probably tie it to the curtain rods once again.

 

[LindsayB]

Well, we put our Christmas Tree up last night and Milo showed no interest it! Yay! Not...I woke up at 4:00 this morning to the sound of ornaments hitting the wood floor...He is now confined to our bedroom for the month of december. 15 pound cats WILL try to climb Christmas Trees!

 

[bobcatridge]

I used to tie the tree to the mantle - fireplace was decorative only - not functional. I also decorated with ribbons and nonbreakable ornaments. Then I got married. I had 5 cats and husband had his 2 cats and his father's 2 cats. Nine cats in the city is way too many cats but neither of us would ask the other to get rid of their pets. Yes, the cats climbed the Christmas trees and we constantly had to anchor the trees. Well, it has been over 16 yrs. We moved to a rural home about 12 yrs ago. All the original cats have died of natural causes. We now have 2 cats, a dog, a child, and 5 chickens. The first year we moved here we built the 'urber' Christmas tree stand. It raises the tree a good 18 inches off the ground which makes room for presents under the tree. It stopped tree climbing with the old cats but these young cats still climb the tree but at least they have never knocked it over. It is a really sturdy wooden constructed table with attached Christmas tree stand. It will support a 12 ft tall tree with no problem. Maybe our stand was a little excessive but it does work!

 

[carolinagirl58]

When we were growing up, mom used to tie the tree off with fishing line to keep it upright. She also hung a small mesh bag of mothballs under the lower branches. Cats HATE the smell of mothballs. I don't much care for the smell either, but it beats broken ornaments.

 

[gryeyes]

I have used unbreakable ornaments for YEARS. I also put the tree on a table or such thing to raise it off the floor. Y'see, I have little wiener dogs who get cold easily, and a tree in the house would just be an invitation for them. "Oh, look! Mom brought us our very own potty tree - wasn't that nice of her? It's way too cold to go outside!"

As to the cats, mine tended to sit placidly in front of a reflective ball ornament and zone out on their reflections in it.

But cinnamon has worked to keep 'em out of the tree.