Cats and Wrapping Presents

So I just got done wrapping a few Christmas presents and my cat was being so obnoxious! She'd run at the scissors while i was cutting (I was on the floor) and slide the paper across the floor. Then she realized she wanted to try and eat/chew on the tape dispenser. Oh, and while I was in the process of taping the paper on one of the presents she grabbed a whole mouthfull of it and ripped some of it off haha. An easy task made difficult by my kitty lol. Anyone else here have a problem with this? If so what funny things do your cats do?

I put Lucky out of the room, She wouldn't stop pouncing on the paper, If she wasn't pouncing she was chewing

I'm having the same problem right now. I'm trying to wrap a few gifts for a family party tomorrow, and Namine keeps dashing all over the room. She's going after the paper, and sneaking her head into a box one of the presents is in. Kairi could care less though.

I have that problem with 5 cats ..... I finally just wrapped two of them up in one of the presents and sent them to my Mother

Forget about putting the presents under the tree! If you think wrapping is great kitty entertainment - wait until it's time to open that wonderful, crinkly stuff with toys (bows) attached!

Laurie

I have to go into a room and no pets are allowed, I learned this the hard way. They wait for me at the door, they hate to miss out on anything of course!

yep... we used to do the wrapping in a room with all the doors closed but we cant do that at our apartment now. Oh well we'll live. Also NONE of the presents under the tree can have any sort of pretty tied bows... they will be eaten if they have them...

Originally Posted by capt_jordi

. Also NONE of the presents under the tree can have any sort of pretty tied bows... they will be eaten if they have them...

Click to expand...

Same here bows are out of the question

I do all wrapping at my mother's house... it's close by, presents are going there anyway, and I know that no matter where I hide them, he'll find them and destroy them anyway, so I just do it there. Last time I tried to do it here, he sat on the laid out paper and would not move.

How To Wrap Presents with A Cat...
1. Clear large space on table for wrapping present.

2. Go to closet and collect bag in which present is contained, and shut
door.

3. Open door and remove cat from closet.

4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.

5. Go back and remove cat from cupboard.

6. Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors,
labels, etc. . .

7. Lay out presents and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping
strategy to be formed.

8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove cat that has been in the
drawer since last visit and collect string.

9. Remove present from bag.

10. Remove cat from bag.

11. Open box to check present, remove cat from box, replace present.

12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.

13. Try and smooth out paper, realize cat is underneath and remove cat.

14. Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.

15. Throw away first sheet as cat chased the scissors, and tore the
paper.

16. Cut second sheet of paper to size - by putting cat in the bag the
present came in.

17. Place present on paper.

18. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don't
reach. Realize cat is between present and paper. Remove cat.

19. Place object on paper, to hold in place while tearing transparent
sticky tape.

20. Spend 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape
from cat with pair of nail scissors.

21. Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.

22. Look for roll of ribbon. Chase cat down hall in order to retrieve
ribbon.

23. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.

24. Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to cat's
enthusiastic ribbon chase.

25. Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.

26. Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of
losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right
size for sheet of paper.

27. Put present in box, and tie down with string.

28. Remove string, open box and remove cat.

29. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for locked
room.

30. Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to relay out paper
and materials.

31. Remove cat from box, unlock door, put cat outside door, close and
relock.

32. Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear
cat from outside door)

33. Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small
area of the toilet, but do your best)

34. Discover cat has already torn paper. Unlock door go out and hunt
through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year's paper.
Remember that you haven't got any left because cat helped with this last
year as well.

35. Return to lockable room, lock door, and sit on toilet and try to
make torn sheet of paper look presentable.

36. Seal box, wrap with paper and repair by very carefully sealing with
sticky tape. Tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst
areas.

37. Label. Sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulate yourself on
completing a difficult job.

38. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to make drink and feed cat.

39. Spend 15 minutes looking for cat until coming to obvious conclusion.

40. Unwrap present, untie box and remove cat.

41. Go to store and buy a gift bag.

I haven't done wrapping yet this here but this is Lucy in previous years.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3.../lucyboxss.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...cyPresents.jpg

And she also likes to eat the tape.

Originally Posted by Pami

I have that problem with 5 cats ..... I finally just wrapped two of them up in one of the presents and sent them to my Mother

Click to expand...

Try wrapping presents with 10 cats to help you. Bring all the presents and wrapping material into a room. Then spend 30 minutes trying to get all of the cats out of the room (1 by 1). It takes this long because when you open the door to toss one out, another one runs back into the room to see what is going on behind closed doors.

Once you have all of the cats removed from the room, run your vacuum cleaner over the presents to remove all of the cat hair, trying very hard not to rip the paper in the process. When you realize that there is too much hair stuck to the tape, go to the store to buy more tape. Be very careful when you open up the door when you do this, or you might start all over again.

I do like the idea of simply wrapping the cats up and sending them as gifts!

Believe it or not, my four don't do anything more than gather around and watch! Are they weird, or what?!

I was concerned about how it was going to go this year, with two Bengals spending their first Christmas with me - and this is Max's very first Christmas!

Last year, Ginger and Ferris helped me wrap, so a lot of my gifts had perforated wrapping paper - for breathability, don't you know.

But this year, I've been doing it on my kitchen floor. and the fearsome foursome gather all around, perching on different levels of the playgym, sitting by my side, or watching from the countertop, (Ginger,) all fascinated by what I'm doing.

Of course, I don't get fancy, just paper and tape. No ribbons or bows. I guess that's why they don't want to help?

Ben loves scissors & boxes. Molly & Lucky lay on the paper as your wrap it. Cello eats the tissue paper. Keeping fur off the wrapped gifts is impossible.
I don't put ribbons or bows on until the last day.

Max had his fun with your glasses. Present wrapping was dull compared to that.

Originally Posted by GingersMom

Believe it or not, my four don't do anything more than gather around and watch!

Are they weird, or what?!

I was concerned about how it was going to go this year, with two Bengals spending their first Christmas with me - and this is Max's very first Christmas!

Last year, Ginger and Ferris helped me wrap, so a lot of my gifts had perforated wrapping paper - for breathability, don't you know.

But this year, I've been doing it on my kitchen floor. and the fearsome foursome gather all around, perching on different levels of the playgym, sitting by my side, or watching from the countertop, (Ginger,) all fascinated by what I'm doing.

Of course, I don't get fancy, just paper and tape. No ribbons or bows. I guess that's why they don't want to help?

Click to expand...

I have to shut myself in a room away from the cats to wrap gifts.
Elliott and Annabelle aren't to bad, but Gracie is a little terror.

She's gets in the gift boxes and lays down, then she attacks the paper..she starts at the other end of the room and then jumps on the paper putting holes all through it.

She gets in the bag with the bows in it takes one out and walks off with it, then comes back for another one.
I lay down the pen I'm writing the "To" and "From" part of the gift tags with and she picks that up and runs off with it.

She finds Christmas gift wrapping very entertaining!