our christmas tree

Oh jeez you're all so lucky! I insisted that we get a real tree even though we have Bella and Pepper who have never seen a christmas tree before. And in the two days we've had it I haven't had a moments rest! I guess I should have expected it, but so many people say their cats don't bother it. . . I was hopeful. Pepper actually climbs up into the tree (dropping millions of pine needles, ornaments, etc) and chews the lights (aren't kitties suppossed to be smarter than that?!). Then Bella runs circles around the tree trying to get to Pepper, but getting pissed that the needles hurt her face when she tries to poke her nose in! Then I've caught Pepper in the act of jumping from the couch towards the tree batting at the ornaments and garland. If he knocks anything down then Bella runs over to chew up whatever fell. So it's funny to write about it, but I'm not sure how I'll manage until Christmas.

Btw, everyone's trees are just beautiful. I hope more people post pics of theirs. I'll try to get one of mine if I can ever get the garland and ornmanents all on at one time again!

Here's ours. I had to buy more ornaments. My old tree was only 4 ft. and this one is 6 ft.

We have cats, Dalmatians, shoes and NASCAR ornaments, as well as lots of purple decorations. Its not one of those fancy designer trees but, its ours.

Here it is!

all done in angels,gold ribbon

and another

Nenners - cool tree. Gosh - mine's going to look so insipid compared to all yours. I kinda like minimalist stuff on the tree (clear baubles, and golds/whites/silvers) which looks OK with candlelight in the room, but I bet it'll look wishy washy in a picture.

We'll see!

Wow! Everyone's trees look so beautiful. I went out and bought our fake 4 1/2 foot tree over the weekend. Ours came with the lights already attatched to the branches, but I added another string of lights.

My kitties have taken a very strong liking to the tree. :laughing: They won't leave it alone and they like to knock all the ornaments off eventhough I didn't put any one the bottom. They have bent all the branches on the bottom from standing on them to reach the ornaments. I guess I can't blame them though, since they are only cats. Do any of your cats try to eat the fake branches? Mine do and its annoying!

I'll take a picture when I get home.

Merry Christmas Sorry its so blurry, Cats were running all over!

Ginger

Spooky,

I'm wondering. Was your Christmas tree still standing when you got home? :clown:

OK I'm going to put up our little tree tonight, purely for the furbabies entertainment, you understand! :laughing2

Please, if you don't hear from me tomorrow, send the ambulance and the men in the white coats - I'll probably be entangled in Christmas tree decorations, unable to move, blubbering to myself about furbabies posessed by the devil. :LOL: :LOL:

Ok I am having major issues with my Christmas tree .

I came home last night and plugged in the lights - lo and behold everything stays dark except one 2 foot section at the bottom?? So I figure Pepper must have pulled apart one of the plug connections in between strands (since as you can read in my earlier post, HE CLIMBS UP INTO THE TREE!). I check them all and everything's fine. So now I'm really confused. I start at the lit section and go light to light looking for a broken one. . . I move along and suddenly the strand pulls really easily out of the tree - and what do I see? My 3-wire light strand has been chewed clear through ALL THREE WIRES!

So I take that whole strand off and start crying because I've already removed all of the ornaments because between Pepper swatting them off, and then Bella chewing them up, most were destroyed, and now no lights - my favorite part of the tree.

Then, to make things worse I check on Bella a bit later, and find her on my bed chewing a huge section of lights??? Both ends of the strand are chewed through. So Pepper chewed through 3 wires in TWO places Bella got the fallen light strand and was munching on wire and plastic. Lovely.

I have pics to share later to try and find some amusement in this.

Big Kat, it comes with the territory. Every morning, I recover ornaments, from all over the house. Nobody's chewed the light cords, yet.

If your tree is small enough or your ceilings high enough, try hanging the tree from the ceiling.

We don't let the dogs in the living room, unsupervised. I have a baby gate in the kitchen door and they sleep in the Arizona room. That doesn't keep the cats out but, it minimizes the damage.

My cats never bother my tree.Wanna know the secret? Its a very skinny tree and the branches are very tightly packed together. They are to scared to get in it because there is no room to move. I also put as much stuff on it as possible! Putting decorative floral stems also works great! Stuff it into the areas that they can climb up in. Don't use garland, try wide ribbon. They don't bother it as much. Don't use glass ornaments. As far as the lights go I don't know what to tell ya. Get some spray for your tree that deters them.

Get an fibre-optic tree. No wires over the tree only from the mains(we cover that with a rug). She nuzzles it and it rotates which is so funny

For the lights, get some Bitter Apple or tobasco sauce and rub it all along the length of the wires so neither Bella nor Pepper will want to chew on it. Try putting up some of those car fresheners with a citrus scent along the bottom of the tree (great ornaments, right?). They may not do much for Bella but should keep Pepper away (cats generally hate citrus). In fact, I would get a bunch and hang them all the way up the tree along the inside of the branches so they aren't as visible and because that's where Pepper is likely to climb up.

Your tree will smell just lovely, won't it?

Thanks Heidi, I had no idea cats don't like citrus. That sounds like the best solution for now. Too late to go out and get a fake tree or make it any smaller (it's about 6.5 feet). I'll update again I'm sure since Christmas is still a ways away!

Sunni Jean

MOST cats don't like citrus. I've been spraying orange-scented stuff on ours, from day one and Rowdy STILL clinbs into the tree and steals ornaments. She has, even pulled branches out of their sockets.

Here's our tree. I unwrapped it and it was HUGE! I was worried my decorations would look lost on it. It did look a bit sparse, so I just went out and bought 5 metres of bluey-silver ribbon and made it into bows.

That filled in the gaps nicely. Because I had to have all the lights on in the room, the whole thing looks a bit bleached out - but the deccies are mainly silver, gold and light blue.

Saturday, I bought eight lemon-scented car deodorizers and hung them on the tree. First, I waved one under Rowdy's nose. Her face scrunched up, like she'd smelled something awful.

Actually, those little yellow palm trees don't look bad on the tree and the whole house smells like lemon.

All your tree's look fantastic. I have always found one of the best parts about christams is decocorating the tree. Although I have to admit I get quite possesive when I am doing it and end up chucking people out the room so I can do it in peace.

We have a 6ft fack tree, with a clear pearly coloured beading and silver and red decorations. Will hopefully be able to get some pictures before we have to take it down

Richard also brought a singing fibre optic tree, its montion sensored and after the initial shock the cats love it and have learned to move their paws near it to get it to sing and move. Then they just sit and look at it.


Marie