Cats and christmas trees are like salt and chocolate: they just belong together. If you have a furry feline who insists on scoping out your living room from half way up your Blue Spruce, here's an easy way to keep them grounded for good!
Try placing citrus peels like oranges and lemons under your tree skirt. In general most cats detest citrus and will keep their distance. As an added bonus, it will make your living quarters smell lovely and won't harm anyone (albeit 2 or 4 legs).
Place a trash bag on your floor and then place the peels on top and simply slide it right under your skirt. Or, you could try this simple basket idea and just fill the basket as you go throughout the season. You can also use citrus oil sprays if you're not into collecting peels, but either way it will keep your tree cat free and put your mind at ease.
Just to be safe, make sure if you have an animal in the home you always wire your tree to the wall. Even though citrus is a proven deterrent for them, that doesn't mean they won't plot other ways around it while you sleep.
Do you have another suggestion for keeping your trees kitty free? Let us know in the comments below!
(Image: Flickr member Susan E Adams licensed for use by Creative Commons)
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that cat is precious
I might try this trick on my other potted plants, too!
Tsk... I don't know. One of the cats definitely isn't interested in eating oranges but I don't think it's much of a DETERRENT exactly.
The other cat seems completely unfazed by orange peels. In fact, the tree itself IS a citrus and he's already chewed branches off of it :(
Yeah, I tried that last year and it didn't work at all. The FatCat won't go up in it, but the other one did, got caught in the lights and scratched the hell out of my and my son's hands before I had to get scissors to cut him out. This may be another Year of the No Ornaments. They are both three years old.
I am planning on hanging my very small tree upside down from the ceiling. This is the first time since I have had my cats that I have ventured to get a tree.
I want to decorate my tree with cute kittens like that one!
One of my cats loves oranges, grapefruit, anything citrus. He eats the fruit and the peels. Luckily, we're Jewish, so we just have to keep him off the menorah.
I found these great christmas tree ornaments at Target, they look just like the normal glass balls but they are plastic and you can't tell at all unless you touch them. My first year, the cats knocked all the glass balls off the tree and broke them, these they knock off, but don't break so I just pick them up and put them back on. Works great!
Gussiebuns: Great tip. Thet have quite a few color selections as well.
http://www.target.com/s?keywords=shatterproof+ornament&searchNodeID=1038576%7C1287991011&ref=sr_bx_1_1