Christmas and cats......?

I'm telling you right now a squirt gun is your best bet!!

My cat's are constantly climbing up our tree turning it into a huge bed and toy. Luckily it's like 7 feet tall so their little bodies can't knock it over but they kept knocking off all the ornaments and walking off with them!!

A simple and cheap squirt gun will help a lot if you just give them a little shoot every time they climb up into or to near the tree for your liking. Eventually they'll get that every time they go near the tree they get water (which is most cat's worst nightmare).

Good luck, and I hope my advice helps. It reeeallly helped with our cat issues.

I was pondering that same question, well actually more along the lines of the cats climbing the tree then knocking it over. That first poster has a good idea with the mats on the floor. However, if your cat is anything like mine, it'll just jump across them directly onto the tree lol....

One thing I did learn several years back, don't use glass ornaments, especially those colored ball ones. My cats liked to knock them off and roll them around the house. They'd always end up in the bathroom, slammed into the bath tub and broken, which I would always find them in the middle of the night by slicing my feet open.

Also, don't put ornaments on the bottom2-3 feet of the tree....

There is some hope, but I've found it to be impossible to keep everything completely intact during Christmas time. With a cat in the house, it's best to just do what's necessary to minimize the damage/risk... prevention is key.

If you have a live tree, make sure you use a stand with a very broad base that will make it pretty much impossible for the cat to knock the tree over. If you have an artificial tree, use fishing line to tie the tree to a plant hook in the ceiling to keep it from being knocked over. Use non-breakable ornaments, as they will be knocked off and will be dangerous if they're broken. Avoid tinsel in any form. Cats will sometimes swallow it and the resulting bowel obstructions can be nasty and sometimes require surgical intervention. The same can be said of bows on presents. My cats love to munch them. I use cloth ribbon to tie bows on presents to avoid having cats eat them.

I don't know if it will help, and it might look a little funny, but you could go buy some of those plastic mats that allows office chairs to roll on. They have little spikes on the bottom to hold them in place. Put them upside down around the tree, you cat won't like walking on it to get to the tree. Place make sure you do NOT use tinsel. Cats love to chew and swallow it. If that happens there is a good chance it will cause a bowel obstruction.

You can put the cat in a cage or put it in a play pen. You can also buy a pet fence and put it between a door so the cat can't get into the room where the tree is.

We affix the tree to the wall and ceiling using fishing line. NOTHING keeps them OFF it so we try and at least keep it standing.