Miya and the Christmas Tree--suggestions?

miyas_mom

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I have a very odd problem. When I am in the living room, Miya thinks it's okay to play around the Christmas tree and chew the bows and ribbon on the presents. I have tried removing her from the tree, I have tried holding her, even tried scolding her (although I admit I am a push-over meow-my). Nothing can really curb her curiousity. Oddly enough, when I am not in the living room, she doesn't bother the tree or the presents. She even curls up on the chair without incident. What can I do to keep Miya from doing this?
 
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miyas_mom

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I wish I could have done that, but many of the presents were upstairs in our room and she was getting just a little too excited with all the ribbon around.

...I have to mention that she is a very smart kitty who likes to open doors, so there really isn't anywhere I can put the gifts.
 

ldg

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We lived in an RV for many years (2 with the kitties). The pics are their first Xmas. And we had to keep everything up in a cabinet we kept closed. Now that we have the house - we find it a lot easier to keep everything out of kitty reach.
 

lisasha3

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What about spraying the tree with some kind of deterrant to keep her off? Putting tin foil around the bottom? Most cats don't like tinfoil - although one of mine sleeps on it.

In our house cats come as a standard Christmas Tree ornament.

I'm a little different than most folks though. The most traffic I get in my house are a bunch of teens (and they don't give a crap what it looks like - they're too busy checking their hair.
). Usually my parents come celebrate with us Christmas eve, but they know I have a house full of furballs and I think if the tree was perfect they would wonder what happened to the cats.
 

pami

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If I were you, unfortunately, I would just take the ribbon off the gifts. It is too big of a chance for her to swallow ribbon and something happen to her.
 

epona

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I feel fortunate that I don't really 'do' christmas!

I am more used to parrots than cats - often parrots will do things that get them attention, whether that's praise or scolding. With a parrot I would remove anything that could cause them harm, but then ignore him when he did something unacceptable, and praise him when he was leaving it alone and playing with his toys instead. I have no idea whether this works with cats, as parrots will learn 'this gets attention' rather than 'this is bad/good'. It occurred to me that if he's doing it only while you're in the room, that maybe he enjoys that you pick him up and talk to him when he does it?

Just a thought!
 
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miyas_mom

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Well, the thing is, she is okay with the tree decorations. She is totally disinterested in them, so I am very lucky. I guess I'll go ahead and start taking the ribbon off the gifts, sigh. I just can't understand why she leaves the presents alone when I'm not around...but I guess that's a secret she'll never tell me. haha
 
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