Pablo hasn’t yet figured out what Doug realized on the first day. A Christmas tree is one gigantic cat toy.
The kitties won’t be removed from our front room, basking in the glow of Christmas tree lights, (cue Isaac Hayes) making sweet, sweet love.
I thought Ethan would be way more excited about the tree, but his excitement is almost completely limited to bitching Doug out for batting the ornaments off of the tree.
What is it with cats and xmas trees? Put mine up yesterday, redecorated this morning…and probably every morning for the next month…
For some reason, our cat no longer bats ornaments around. He just chews on the damn tree. He hasn’t pulled the tree over in about 5 years (lucky him, Dad just about shot him with his non-existent rifle that day), but he sure tries. He also surveys the lights very carefully, as though he wants to chew them. We almost encourage him, since he probably would stay the fuck away from the tree if he ever got around to actually chewing through the lights. But, Dad’s too afraid that the shock would do permanent damage, so we chase him before he gets the chance.
Cats are the reason my family gave up on tinsel, string balls, and glass ornaments on the lower branches ages ago. That, and why there is a huge metal bolt in the ceiling so a rope can be strung between it and the tree.
The only way my cats have modified my xmas tree behavior is the elimination of popcorn garlands, which, however old-timey, aren’t that great anyway. They are completely facinated with the tree and sit under it all the time, but they really don’t bother the ornaments.
More of a problem is the ick factor when they drink the water. These are not deprived cats – they have fresh water every minute I’m home (literally, it’s another behavior modification win for them) but I catch them drinking the tree water all the time. Must be special to have it flavored.
When the kids decorate the tree, all ornaments get put on the lower branches. We have to migrate them higher because, between 3 cats and 3 large dogs with whips for tails, the ornaments go flying every time. I think we’ve only had a tree yanked over once or twice though. My upstairs kitty loves laying underneath the tree on the boxes and such that accumulate there eventually.
Someone should tell Pablo that he is supposed to hang his stockings by the chimney with care, not throw them on the floor in the vicinity of the tree. Stupid cat.
Also, kids don’t get excited about a Christmas tree until their presents are under it.
I remember growing up, our cat climbed the damn tree and finally tipped it over. She never tried that again. They may be stupid but they do learn. We kept her from playing with the balls by leaving many indestructible ones lying around. She didn’t bother with the ones on the tree at that point. Of course it helped that we arranged the gifts as a wall around the tree;-).
My GF, loves stringing and hanging popcorn. We have two dogs and it does tend to disappear over the season at least on the low branches.
The cure for the annual cats vs. Christmas tree: a fake tree. I know, they suck compared to the real ones, but they do make nice ones now. No mess, you don’t have to shell out the big bucks every year for a tree that lasts only a couple of weeks, and no tree-climbing cats. They’re just not into the fake stuff. ;-)
The cat I mentioned climbed and broke a fake tree. I guess it depends on the stupidity of the cat. Since moving out from my parents house (10 years ago) I’ve always used a fake but beautiful tree. This year (tomorrow) my GF and I will be buying a real tree for the first time. One of my dogs likes climbing trees so we’ll see how that goes.
Oh my gosh, I think our overweight cats are from the same litter. My big fat cat looks exactly like yours, with the prominent black stripe down his back and everything, although maybe a little less brown. You can’t tell very well from this photo, but trust me, that rotund body is a dead ringer for my guy.
My advice re: fake trees is to go really, really FAKE. Like, white or silver or glitter. No point in trying to fool anyone.
My tree last year brushed my 12-foot ceiling. I didn’t really realize how big it would be inside while I was picking it out outside.
Hilarity ensued while I tried to get it home in my shopping cart. Fortunately, the garden center is only a block or so away and my super, who dreads this time of year due to needle shedding, helped me get it into the building. He also came to cut it up to get it out.
Surprisingly enough, neither of the cats nor the dog expressed much of an interest in the tree. A 12-foot frickin’ fir tree in the living room and they’re indifferent to it. Bastids.