Bad Smeagol!!!

[trixtersmomma]

Ugh, he is driving me up the wall. He can't stay away from the christmas tree! I keep having to drag him out from under it because he keeps chewing on it! I worry he will get shocked if the lights are on, or he will ingest some of the plastic fake tree stuff. Over and over, we tell him no, and put him in time outs, but he will NOT stop. He has even knocked the entire tree over a few times. We keep having to lock him in another room over and over again! Smeagol is 2 and a half years old, and as you can see in my sig, a siamese mix. He was born feral and was given to us at 4 weeks. He has ALWAYS been one to have very little respect for authority and not listen very well! lol He's such a little brat, but I hate having to lock him up every 10-20 minutes. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get him to leave the tree alone? He seems to like the attention, even though it's negative, that he gets when he starts chewing on it. I don't want to have to take the tree down, but he is driving us bonkers!

Thanks in advance for any replies.

~ Bobbi ~

 

[miss mew]

I have had that problem every year with my 6 year old terror Reilly. What I had to do was go out and buy a product called "Shoo Away" (bitterapple spray) you spray it on the area that you don't want your cat to chew or in this case climb. I works but you do have to respray it often.

 

[pippen]

Originally Posted by TrixtersMomma

. He was born feral and was given to us at 4 weeks. He has ALWAYS been one to have very little respect for authority and not listen very well! lol

I'm quite certain that I'm going to be writing your post come next week when we put up our tree.

Pippin acts exactly like my ultra strong willed adventurous child did when he was three-neither could care less if they obey/please us or not! The other day I put a table runner up and he promptly climbed up on the table and flopped down on the runner like the kitchen was his royal kingdom, this despite the fact he's been removed from the table, oh, only about 100 times. I tossed him off and he got back up to use it as for a scratching post.

My parents both have cats (the obedient kind) and are in disbelief when I tell them the antics of this one. I haven't even told them about the hole in the drywall in the hallway where he attacked what he thought was a bug. Now he just shreds the drywall just for fun.

 

[trixtersmomma]

LOL oh man... cats are such pains in the butt, but we love them so very much anyways! lol Smeagol keeps trying to intice my Trixter into the tree, too! lol, luckily his huge booty has only played with/under/around the tree a couple times... so far... haha

And thanks for the idea about the spray stuff. Where can you find that stuff? I just wonder whether it would work for Smeagol, as he likes the flavor of the WEIRDEST things. He likes vinegrette salad dressings, even! I think its because, being born a feral and raised that way til he was 4 weeks, he was taught to eat anything and everything he could find! LOL

 

[epona]

This makes me so thankful that I don't really 'do' Christmas. I haven't had a tree or lights in years, because if cats will make a mess of it, parrots are even worse

I would definitely try the bitter apple spray if you can get it, at least to stop him chewing on the branches and lights.

 

[alysbrangwin]

It's been a number of years since my 18 year old Siamese Mix went after our fake tree and Christmas lights, so I can't promise it'll work since time kinda fades some memories, but if I'm remembering correctly:

We made a large circle out of cardboard with a hole in the middle to slide it down the stand, which covered up the gap at the bottom of the branchline (he'd always jump up through the middle of the tree at it's base), and used something (I'm thinking duct tape attached to the pole) to hold it just below the start of the branches.

For the lights, I think we covered the part of the cord which went from the tree to the outlet in aluminum foil.

 

[urbantigers]

Ha ha! My cats are terrors with the xmas tree. I just make sure it only has safe decorations and let them play away

My advice to you is to take your tree down for a couple of weeks - its WAY too early for xmas trees!!

 

[mcmaggie]

My cat was highly interested when we were putting up the tree, and for most of the day inpected it, played with decorations etc., which we let her do for the most part..but after that she was done with it, and we've had no problems since.