I swear, this cat isn’t right. She goes nuts at least twice a day, ripping through the house, and I’m worried what she’ll do when we put the tree up. I can’t watch her all day, and as soon as my back is turned I know she is gonna cause some trouble. I may have to kill her, and get a new cat after Christmas, but that’s only plan B. Anyone have a plan A?
Surely the first plan you come up with is plan A… Shoot the cat.
But seriously, wrap tin (Aluminum for my colonial buddies!!) foil around the pot, bucket or whatever you hold the tree in. We had a cat that couldn’t stand the noise of the foil and very quickly learn to avoid it. It can still look decorative, perhaps some ice on a pond… The other one my mom used to try was bits of orange peel around the base. You only need it for a day or two. The cat will soon learn it is revolting, and the acid burns their eyes (Sounds like a nasty picture but its quite harmless!!!) Once they know its a bad place, they’ll never go near it.
I don’t know if it works, I was living 4,ooo miles away at the time!
My parents have several… ok, way too many… cats, and have learned to secure the tree to the wall via some twine and a hook. This also keeps it from falling over on my mom when she waters it, which is another (extremely funny) story.
Another idea is to not hang anything especially breakable or dangly on the lower branches, so your cat won’t be tempted to attack stuff. My parents have had suprisingly few broken ornaments the last few years, so I think it’s working.
Hi KV, based on my long history of being owned by cats, I’d say your cat is right. They all seem to have mad half-hours every day. Especially around twilight time I’ve noticed.
Hmm, the Christmas tree is a cat classic; they can’t resist anything new and climb-able. You could get a commercial repellant, but that might not be very nice. In terms of home-made repellants, citrus is the best I’ve tried. Cats hate the tart smell of citrus fruits. So you could get some lemon juice and spray the bottom of the tree every once in a while.
But tree trouble is inevitable I fear. Best try to make sure there won’t be any obvious danger for when your furry friend does go adventuring.
You could get a live tree. We got a live tree two years ago. It came in a BIG pot of dirt and was very heavy. It was brough into the house with a moving dolly. It was too heavy to be knocked over by a cat. Our cats are older now and weren’t ambitious enough to jump up into the pot. Your cat probably will, so be prepared. She will dig in the dirt, then track it everywhere. She may also climb the tree. But again, if it’s heavy enough, she won’t be able to knock it over.
If you love your cat, be careful about the ornaments you put on the tree. Many pets will eat the “icicles,” which aren’t good for them.
Two of my cats love to play with tin foil. They seem to like the crinkly sound and one of them will eat it if there was food on it. We had to start being very careful with the stuff when we began finding stools with bright silvery bits in them. Needless to say, very dangerous. Don’t use tinsel either, same thing.
K.
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Thanks, everyones suggestions are appreciated. This is our cat’s first Christmas. Our previous cats REALLY enjoyed eating the ribbon off of the presents, needless to say it made for a very colorful litter box. This cat is already finding ways to sneak into the fireplace, leaving sooty paw prints around the house. We have an artificial tree, and my biggest fear is that she will either brake the ornaments, or knock the thing over entirely. I’m still in favor of plan B.
Aw, let the poor cat have fun.
A Christmas tree is just a Christmas tree, but a cat is a human being.
(Okay, a cat is NOT a human being, but you get the idea!)
Citronella ties. They tie around the branch near the base. Works like a charm
I also disagree about the foil, my one kitty adored it.
They both seemed to really enjoy Christmas tree season (having drinks in the living room I suspect).
Only one attacked it, she’d run up it and it fell, twice. She never did it again. It was kind of like a self teaching exercise. we of course did have to refrain from putting ornaments on the lower branches.
Another word: if you intend to give your kitty a wrapped present (like treats or catnip), they can smell it through the wrapping and will help themselves as soon as your back is turned (or even before)
Simple, if plan A; shoot the cat, does not appeal to you, may I suggest an alternative. That is take the cat out into the street and see how far you can punt it, but make sure to get plenty of hang time. Hang time is essential in a good punt.
,sorry. couldn’t resist
Try this,
Put your tree up, secure it if possible by putting up a ceiling tie.Do not decorate it at first.
If you are going to put it in a pot then make a cone shaped collar to put around the lower trunk, cats just love to experiment when they go for a pooo, a sloping surface will keep yours of this prime target.
Now let your cat into the room and when it goes anywhere near to the tree give it a blast with your water pistol, oh did I forget to mention that ?
You may need to be patient but if you keep it up your cat will figure it out.
Put up a few decorations near the top and leave for a while like a day or so and slowly trim up.Make sure you keep that water pistol handy.
Do not put lights on the tree unless they are those low voltage ones run from a transformer, you can never tell, but some cats have this fatal habit…
I’d advise you not to put foil covered chocolate decorations on, even high up.The chocolate is bad for them and swallowing the foil might well be.
A friend’s cat had a habit of stalking flies when they came buzzing round, one day, when all was quiet there was a huge crash and we dashed into the front room thinking that a brick must have come flying through the window. There was the tree on the floor, decorations and needles everywhere and the cat calmy stepping out from the branches with a ‘don’t ask me officer I just got here’ kind of exprssion (anthromorphing a bit I guess)
Best guess was that a fly had landed on the tree …you can guess the rest.
Really? I’d heard that chocolate was bad for dogs, hadn’t heard the same for cats. Same for white chocolate? (My kitty used to really love it)
We’ve never had a problem with the cat getting to the tree (it would be below Her Highness to make a fool of Herself in such a way 
) but the iguana really loved the tree.
One year I happened to find these giant painted jingle bell ornaments. The bell itself was nearly baseball sized. They have victorian-style pictures painted on them and ribbon strung through to hang them with. They are beautiful. And they also make a damn fine ‘tree-alarm’. Whenever a critter or small child disturbs the tree, they make quite a racket.
Maybe you could either find some of these or make your own. I’m sure your local craft store has decorative cow-bells or something.
Then at least you’d know the moment your kitty got into the tree and could go stop him/her. Maybe the noise would work like aversion therapy and teach kitty to just quit trying.
Good luck!
Buy one of those fake cat-trees and decorate it.
::shuffling through the Delta-9 Bag 'O Trix for the ACME Kitty Electric Fence::
Duct Tape
[sub]For the cat, not the tree.[/sub]
I’m telling you the Citronella hangers worked great, petstores sell them. 
I thought that was for…oh, never mind.
Sorry Wring but 'tis true choc is even worse for cats than it is for dogs.
I’ve seen Cedric comment on this somewhereso it must be true.
It’s got some chemical in it with lots of unlikely looking combinations of vowels.