We do somethings that we think deter the cats from the tree. As with most years we put our tree on a table. This helps keep it out of the cats’ way. With our first cat the weekend we brought the tree in the house she spend two days throwing up. My husband is convinced that she ate a needle and it bothered her stomach so ever since then we are fastidious about needles on the floor. I vacuum often when we have a tree that sheds a lot. One year, when the tree was on the floor, I was vacuuming ALL the time because the cat would walk by with tail up and knock a load of needles off the tree. Another reason why we put our tree on a table. We are fortunate to have a very tall ceiling where we put the tree. We have also experienced cats drinking the tree water. That can’t happen.
BC, as in Before Cat(s), I had purchased some “Tree Saver”. It goes in the tree water and supposedly it helps the tree last longer. Well, can’t put that in the tree water with cats. Don’t know what it is in, but I bet they shouldn’t be drinking it. And so we don’t do that, but also, “they” say that the pesticides and chemicals that the trees are grown with shouldn’t be ingested by cats. So it is not a good idea for cats to drink the water that the tree is in. Plus, even though we replenish the water daily the dish doesn’t get washed and the water is just sitting in there for a month . . . cats don’t need to be drinking that. So my hubby came up with a simple cat deterrent. He just cut some cardboard and put it over the tree’s dish. Normally, it can’t be seen. But this is a different kind of tree, it doesn’t have any low branches, so the dish can be seen. But that is ok. It not THAT noticeable and it keeps the cats out of the water.
The cardboard keeps them out of the water and since they can’t get to the water they don’t jump on the table. That means neither needles nor ornaments get knocked down.
Now this is only the third Christmas that we have had these cats and so far so good. In fact, what I did this year was so out of the ordinary, yet they didn’t bother anything. I was in a rush to get the boxes emptied and put up so I just pulled a bunch of the stuff out of the boxes and left it lying around. And we had boxes in the house for weeks. And to my knowledge, they didn’t bother anything. Nessa liked to jump in and sit in the middle of some garland that took me days to hang.
I do play with them A LOT during Christmas. I make sure I get up early so we have a lot of play time. Also, since I am home, when they ask (and they DO ask) to play, if I can, I stop what I am doing and play with them. I figure if they are not bored then they will not mess with the Christmas tree and decorations.
I also tell them “No!” for just looking. If they LOOK at the tree, I say, “No.” They are really good girls because not only is there a tree in their house it displaces their tower. I figure we have about 30 days. At least we did with Spot. Day 31, she let us know she was done.
How does your cat handle a tree inside the house for a month?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 