Christmas trees and cats

[sophie1]

I got a real Christmas tree this year, for the first time ever.  It was just a small "Charlie Brown" tree about 4 feet high.

I got the tree on a weekend so I could watch to see if my cats would try to climb it.  They didn't for 3 days, so I confidently went to work.  About 2 hours later I got a call from the building super:  they'd knocked down the tree and the water ran through the floor and leaked into the apartment below.  What a disaster!  So, lesson #1:  I got some string and tied the tree to a curtain rod so it couldn't fall over.  I will also get a bombproof tree stand if I do this again next year.

The cats mostly ignored the tree after that, until just this past weekend I saw one cat go to it, stand up to reach a point about halfway up the tree, and pull off a Christmas ornament.  He then proceeded to bat it and chase it like a toy mouse.   He apparently regards the tree as a toy storage device.  Lesson #2:  make sure all ornaments are cat-safe and can survive some rough handling.  I already knew not to use tinsel.

A nice bonus:  when I unwrapped the netting around the tree, there were some small branches that fell off.  These turned out to be most excellent cat toys.  I haven't seen them try to chew on the branches or lick water out of the dish, fortunately.

So that's my Christmas tree venture...anyone have tips & experiences to share?

 

[red top rescue]

What I did back when I was younger and had Christmas trees in addition to cats, I put a sturdy plant hook in the ceiling, the kind that would hold a very heavy potted plant, and I wired the top of the Christmas tree to that.  I didn't even worry about a tree stand other than it had to hold a lot of water and basically secure the trunk to itself.  The one I chose was very wide at the bottom and narrow at the top and there was no way they could tip it over at all as long as the tree was firmly anchored in the ceiling. Then I would use the nonbreakable cloth ornaments all over the bottom of the tree and the little houses with lights higher up, and then string bubble lights around the whole thing close to the trunk (I don't know if bubble lights are still a thing, I'm an old person now, but I loved them and the cats liked watching them.)  Other than having to give up my old tradition of carefully draping tinsel over all the branches, everything was fine from then on.  I would discourage any kind of glass balls that could break and cut a cat if they fell off, but there are plenty of sturdy plastic ones that are just as pretty.  Enjoy your Holiday Cat Tree!