Oh, Christmas Tree!
I decided to put the Christmas tree up last night. I'm not sure why; I usually wait until at least the 12th to even consider it despite my love of all things festive. To be honest, I wish I had waited now... cats and Christmas trees, even fake ones, do not mix.
First, Hex insisted that he must help put it up. Every 'branch' had to be inspected, chewed and thoroughly killed. (I'm half expecting green bits of plastic material in his poop today.) We fetched out the spray water bottle to deter him, which worked on and off, or for at least enough time for us to finish assembling it and get our few decorations on.
Once the tree was 'complete', he started jumping up it to attack the baubles that we'd placed higher up. He even jumped off the windowsill onto the tree, somehow getting through or around the curtain to do so. His climbing and jumping has bent two of the lower branches and despite my feeble attempts to bend them back into shape the tree looks like its wilting.
Karl and I went to bed last night expecting to be woken up to the sound of the tree falling over, or the cat mewing because he'd got himself stuck. To my surprise, there was little evidence of misadventure when I got up to feed him this morning (7am) and only 4 decorations on the floor. Unfortunately, this had more than doubled to 9 by the time I got back out of bed nearer 10am, and the front of the tree had taken a blow by the look of it. He hasn't left it alone since, aside from the few minutes he spent terrorising the Wii.
Karl and I are going on a bit of a mission today to try and find some cat-safe lights (LEDs instead of glass-based normal ones), but if that fails I'm just going to double-sided sticky the little shit (Hex, not Karl) to his blanket on the sofa. He won't be able to play in the tree then!
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 13:15, Amber said:
We started putting ours up last night too. It's different for us because it's normally up on the 1st December. At least it might still look acceptable on Christmas day now. Pets and trees definitely do not mix!
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 13:24, Sarai said:
lol @ him being permanently stuck to the sofa.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 13:32, Jordie said:
[quote]Once the tree was 'complete', he started jumping up it to attack the baubles that we'd placed higher up.[/quote] Oh bloody hell, my cats do that too... it drives me bonkers. I'm putting mine up tomorrow.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 13:47, Grant said:
ROFL cats are funny like. have a read at http://tinyurl.com/2ko9hd it is ways to protect you christmas tree against cats! It also has tip to stop the tree falling over.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 13:58, Rachael said:
If you think he's bad now... wait till he gets his mits on the wrapping paper.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 14:43, Aisling said:
At least you don't have tinsel. When we used to use it, I would find it in the litter box. Ew. My mom is decorating right now, and one of our cats has taken it upon herself to taste test everything as well.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 15:24, Alyssa said:
Is it just me or does the placement of Hex's tail in the first picture look a bit funky?
After you look at it for a while, it doesn't look AS strange, but that's the first thing I looked at when I clicked the thumbnail.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 15:50, Rhian said:
The last time we put a tree up our cat was actually scared of it. However every year when my grandma puts her tree up her cat ends up knocking it down once or twice.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 15:57, Emsz said:
My cat just goes: Oh, tree, well interesting... NOT
She's 9, so that makes a difference I guess 
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 16:07, Aneesah said:
Ahaha. How adorable! xP Cats just love to have fun, that's all. Right, Hex?
Kittens even more, seriously. =|
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 16:31, Amelie said:
I will gladly steal him and take him off your hands/tree/decorations. *Squishes*
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 17:03, Josh(ua/y) said:
[quote]I'm half expecting green bits of plastic material in his poop today.[/quote] If you had a proper non-artificial tree, it would probably provide a wholly nutritious plant for Hex to nibble on, and his chewing of the branches would not need to be a cause of concern.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 17:19, Lene said:
We put up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving, I love how it smells! Your tree looks adorable, and so does Hex
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 18:13, Jordan said:
The first cropped picture of Hex looks really cute.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 18:28, Britney said:
lol cats are adorable! I posted a similar blog entry a while back. Although my mom and I have a fake tree, so my cat doesn't have any branches to get in. She just lays under it and chews it.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 19:00, Nano said:
Cute! Here in Argentina, we put the tree up today, on December 8th. I've already done it.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 21:15, Kaylee said:
My household doesn't have a Christmas tree or a cat - we don't celebrate Christmas and we don't like animals!
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 21:46, Hev said:
I love your tree, Jem. It is so pretty. I just wish I had enough room in my house for a Christmas tree. Ummm...Jem, get a water squirt gun or water bottle that with shoot a straight stream of water and every time he starts on the tree, tell him no, and shoot him with the water. It won't hurt him & unless he actually likes water. This is only if you want him to stop with the tree, if you don't then don't worry about it.
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 22:24, Sledge said:
When we first got our cats, we were told not to squirt them with water if they misbehaved (walking on the counters, scratching the couch, etc.) because if they ever needed a bath, it would prove to be more difficult. Instead, we clap loudly twice and say a firm, "No." to them. That works well, and we don't really have too many problems with the two of them anymore. I'm sort of dreading putting up the tree though because the cats are always in the boxes thinking they are new play things; we usually give them shoe boxes to curl up in because for some reason, they prefer them to the beds or couches. When the tree is up though, they just like to sleep underneath it. It's too cute!
On Sat 8th Dec 2007 @ 23:36, Nellie said:
I've never had a problem with cats and Christmas trees, but my dog used to love Christmas time because, being a bunch of sweet-toothed fatties, we always had chocolate ornaments and candy canes on our tree. Every Christmas, without fail, there'd be chewed up foil wrappers and half munched on candy canes all over the living room floor. The strangest thing was, even the goodies higher up the tree went missing and the tree was never knocked over. I think my dog must be one smart cookie.
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 02:22, Hev said:
I understand about the dog & Christmas trees. This evening I took my two babies (dogs) over to a friends house (well, I got picked up & took). Candi, my little chihuahua, decided that she just had to see their Christmas tree closer. The next thing I knew she had climb (yep, climb) up the tree and was trying to bite off the branches and ornaments. Just about the time, I am reaching over to pick her up off of the tree Mac, my miniature schnauzer jumps up and hits the tree sending it crashing to the floor. So if you have a chihuahua watch them, they will and can climb (I didn't know they could do that).
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 04:48, Holly said:
Thankfully my cat has never gone quite that mad with our Christmas tree! I hope the novelty wears off for Hex soon and he calms down so that you don't have to resort to sticking him to the sofa!
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 07:19, Niki said:
Our christmas tree is too small but not too big for Hex to swallow whole. We're all to lazy to put up a large tree in this household lol
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 08:55, Mumblies said:
Pmsl this is what you expect with furry critters Jem...They all do it
) I have no doubt that Billi will soon be joining Hex in the ranks of "tree climbers" (Well he will once you come and do my tree"
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 11:51, Brigitte said:
Ha! What do you expect? You named him Hex! We had 3 cats at once (at long time ago) and over the years they managed to break, one at a time, the 100 silver glass balls that my step-mom insisted on decorating the tree with. I'm amazed they never hurt themselves.
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 12:30, Han said:
We usually get a massive real tree and the cats LOVE it, we learnt it the hard way and now we put it in the rooms that are designated fur free, ie the living room (or the dining room one year) we let them in on christmas day one year - it was a disiaster and isn't to be repeated! The poor tree
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 14:42, Lil said:
My Billy looks just like your Hex, heh. He is pretty mischievous but at the same time grumpy and old so he'll usually just sit under the Christmas tree and stay there. It's adorable when he's in there amongst all the other presents. I think we as cat owners are really asking for trouble when we put the tree up. We essentially put a huge dense bush up, put loads of dangling shiny objects on it and then top it with flashing pretty lights and expect our cats to behave
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 17:20, Kim said:
We put ours up yesterday afternoon. Pets and Christmas trees most defiantly don't mix! We used to have a house rabbit (died earlier this year) that used to chew through the cables for the lights! =/
On Sun 9th Dec 2007 @ 19:33, Angela said:
It's so aggravating yet adorable at the same time when they assault the christmas tree. My jet black cat Bella was the same way with our christmas tree last year. Sometimes I would even let her continue to assault it just because it was so funny and other times I wanted to lock her in the bathroom.
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 00:08, Ang said:
I don't even entertain the thought of a xmas tree with 3 cats. And that's fine by me, I have a little singing snowman I put on my tv as a decoration. And a Lamb Chop wearing a Santa hat.
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 02:07, Summer said:
This is why we're afraid to put up our Christmas tree. We don't want our dog to try and swallow an ornament.
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 08:05, Vera said:
I positively ADORE the first picture. It just needs a "rawrrr" (or well meeee-OW!!!)
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 11:22, Chans said:
Looks like we're in the same boat on this... Sam has already distroyed two ornaments and took about 15 off the tree so far. And it's been only up for 2 days. I hope the tree makes it to christmas...
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 15:27, Hannah said:
How cute!
I was worried about my cat trying to destoy the tree, but (much to my surprise) she hasn't even acknowledged that it's there, other than looking at it funny.
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 15:41, Helen said:
My mom put her christmas tree up yesterday, and my neice and I spent all day decorating it... then my stupid brother came home and knocked it over. Genius. I'm just glad we don't have a tree, it'd drive the dog bonkers.
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 16:07, Carly said:
Ohh he looks sooo cute and funny. My dog took one look at our tree, cocked his leg and my Mum had to chase him off. In his world someone had put a big wee tree in his front room to save to inconvenience of having to go out to do a wee! Apparently last year when she took him to pets at home (or whatever it's called - the petshop you're allowed to take pets to) he weed up their display tree too!
On Mon 10th Dec 2007 @ 18:01, Meghan said:
Hex is so cute! My cats are like that too. My Misty loves to eat plants, feathers, plastic, anything....lol. And my Bella loves to climb on, under, and between everything, often getting stuck. My first year with Bella she went straight up the center of my tree, couldn't get down, and cried for help until I got her down, lol. I'm lucky she didn't knowck the whole thing over.
On Wed 12th Dec 2007 @ 12:51, Snowcore said:
How a nice cat!