Our cats are 13 and 14. Overall they are pretty lazy now that they are older. Up until a few years ago, they would still try to climb the tree when I first put it up. It was getting kind of scary those last few years, because the one cat is not exactly thin and the tree would teeter. I thought for sure she would make it fall over at some point. As much as they drove me nuts when they did that, I kind of miss their playfulness. I had forgotten about this until my daughter called me and told me her new kitten was trying to climb the tree all the time and she wondered what she could do about it. I told her to use the spray bottle, which did work. Anyone have any funny stories about your cat climbing your Christmas tree?
When my sister was just learning to walk as a toddler, my mom put the tree in the playpen that year. My sister could then walk freely in the house but not be able to reach the tree's ornaments. Not sure if this would work for cats as cats are climbers.
My sister (now grown) ties her tree to a hook in the ceiling to make sure it doesn't topple over as she now has two kittens. She has tried with her previous cats to prevent them from climbing her Christmas tree but nothing worked, no matter how many times she would water spray her cats in the tree. So she now secures her tree. Perhaps you can put up the Christmas tree, only on Christmas Day or find a way to secure it. There is no point in getting frustrated over your kitty during the holidays.
I had a cat named Snowball that climbed the Christmas tree without fail every year - until she knocked it down and scared herself so much that she quit. After that she contented herself with just sleeping under it and we used to tell our then 3 year old son that she was waiting for Santa to come. She passed away a few years ago and I still think about her when I set up the tree. The cats that I have now don't bother with it, which is a blessing because it's no fun fixing a tree after a cat destroys it. My current cat Mittens used to like eating the tinsel, which is never good because they have to digest what they eat. You should never try to pull these out by the way because it can damage their intestines. Just use scissors to cut them off. I know - yuck - but it does happen and it needs to be said. The safest practice is to not use tinsel if your pets like to eat that stuff.
I don't have a cat right now, but I have about 12 of them in the past and they loved to hang on Christmas trees..making my mom so mad. The other day I was at a relative's place and their cat was all over the tree. I thought that the lady of the house allowed it until she screamed and ran as if her house was on fire.. the poor kitty was all scared and in his attempt to run away got completely entangled in the garland.. It was such a funny sight to see.. Kitty wrapped in garland.
The lady had a neat squirt can which she used when any of her other cats came near the tree and they seemed to leave it alone. She was also told me that her kitty ate up the garlands as well.
Since my wife and I moved in together, we have yet to put up a tree. However, when she used to have a tree years ago, she would tell me that both of our cats would try to sleep inside of the tree.
Last year, when we had our Christmas gifts wrapped up for them, they would both sniff it and knew immediately what was theirs and what wasn't. It was hilarious to watch!
Two of my cats would "fight" with the tree decorations. The tree is thankfully too thin for them to even attempt climbing it. I think those two are just fascinated with new stuff and have to see and touch everything new. For example each time I go on a road and come back, my cat falls asleep in the travel bag while I am unpacking.
The third cat is way way too lazy to be interested in attacking the Christmas tree.
My old kitty likes to lay under the tree, but he doesn't tear it down or mess with the ornaments anymore. He didn't bother it too much when he was younger, but he'd swat at the ornaments near the bottom every now and then. On the other hand, when I was a teenager, we had two family cats that loved to jump in the tree and rip down the ornaments. One day, they knocked the tree completely down and tore off most of the ornaments and garland. My brother and I came home from school to find our mom sobbing like Raphie's mom from A Christmas Story when the neighbor's dogs ate the turkey.
My cat always swats at the ornaments on the tree lol. He doesn't really try to climb it or anything else like that but he will definetely knock a few ornaments on the ground while we have our tree up. On an unrelated note, my son who just turned one is also trying to take the ornaments off lol. Now I have both a cat and a child to worry about. I have now learned to keep the breakable ornaments way higher up so neither can get to them
The one problem we had this year was that my cat (who was only a kitten last Christmas) decided to eat the Christmas tree. It was a real tree and made him quite sick. He was vomitting a white foam for two days and not eating. He was also a little grumpy. But he was drinking water and doing his business as per usual. So I continued to watch him. He got better after 2 days and started eating again. I read online that Christmas trees are toxic to cats. The needles can also do damage inside their bodies. I guess I'm lucky my Frank did alright. But next year, we are going to have to be more careful.
My cat Delores has broken so many ornaments over the past few years that I completely gave up on having a full size tree and I just keep a desktop artificial tree near my computer. I don't know what makes cats go crazy and want to jump on, climb and even chew on natural Christmas trees. But I don't want to pick up any more broken glass or pick up a tree that's been knocked over, so I'll just be doing the little fake tree from now on. I used to use tinsel and I never had problems with my cat eating it but she did like to play with it and I would find tinsel all over the carpet.
Delores likes to chew on cords, which is bad news when it comes to Christmas lights and I worry that one day she'll get electrocuted. Cats are great pets, but they can be a handful around the holidays and I don't decorate as much as I used to.
Oh gosh. My cats were terrible this year! My two older boys know not to mess with the tree, but I have two little ones that thought it was great. We tried to hang the ornaments up high enough so they couldn't reach them, but they still got several. Fortunately the ones on the bottom weren't glass except two that my younger sister hung. The boys broke both and tried to play with them after. Fortunately I was able to get the glass away from both of them very very quickly. There was one point where one of the boys ran off of the entertainment center and jumped into the tree! You know the Halloween decorations with the witches splattered against the tree? That was pretty much how my kitten looked.
My family's kitten, Alice, is the world's worst about climbing the Christmas tree. She doesn't even get very far, perhaps a few branches up, before she gives up and lands back on the presents. Before this year, my family never really had to deal with cats and trees! So, this past Christmas was very different, but also extremely amusing. Especially seeing as our older cat, Sibyl, pretty much did nothing except watch Alice - even though we all knew that she was a expert tree calmer!
My oldest cat doesn't even look at the tree, much less play with it or climb in it.
Neko, the younger of the two, still acts like a kitten in many ways. She's always climbed in the Christmas tree, ven when told not to.
Occasionally she'll try to sneak into it so we don't yell at her. She's climbed all the way to the top.
She also played from under the tree, attacking your feet when you or the dog walk by.