AT is wrapping up pet month, so could not resist posting these photos and story I received this past week from Heliconia:
"I was inspired by Apartment Therapy’s beautiful pictures of fresh flowers and decided to try it. All of us (the cat, my husband, and I) really enjoyed them.
However, the cat enjoyed them the most..."
"He nibbled. He dragged the flowers out of the vase leaving a trail of water. He dipped his paws in the water and shook them, leaving spatter marks on the table and walls.
So I went to plan B-- potpourri."
"Yes, he liked that too. He played with it but that we could put up with since it was dry."
"We never dreamed, however, that he would knock the entire bowl off the table. At midnight. I didn’t take pictures of the devastation, sorry.
So, is there a plan C?"
Our cats are very well trained, but they also cannot resist temptation sometimes. For their health, and to keep vases from getting broken, we have a safe place to put our flowers for when we leave. Our flowers are never too grand to fit in that spot, and that has worked for us.
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I would also check into the toxicity of all the flowers and potpourri for cats. Like food, it's surprising what other things can be harmful or lethal to particular animals.
I learned the hard way that lillies are poisonous to cats. My kitties are fine now, after the 2000 dollar vet bill.
My cats would not leave flowers alone. I lost so many vases from them selling flowers. It seemed like a lost cause because my husband stop buying me flowers because of the cats. Then we found a wall mounted vase. We hung it in a place they couldn't reach and it looks great with flowers. Plus when I don't have flowers, I put a candle it in which looks nice as well. Here is a picture of the vase we found.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/degerkas/2829402022/
by selling, i mean stealing.
Or get fake plants. Save for a cactus and succulent in my kitchen window sill and a bamboo stick, I have only fake plants and flowers. Mostly because I have brown thumbs and manage to kill almost everything that's green (I forget to water them). I never get flowers either (pollen allergy).
However, the secondary reason for not having real plants and flowers is the cat, he tries to play with it and creates a mess in the process. The fake ones, on the other hand, he barely touches. There's only one he sometimes paws at a bit.
And these days you can get really nice looking fake flowers, people often need to look twice to see mine are fake.
I have several large trees inside, on wheels and for one very odd month or so, until she grew tired of it, the kitten found that with a running start she could make the trees "sail " around the room! The ficus careened into the coffee table, the banana took to ending up in the hall and the norfolk pine visited several rooms.
You never knew when a 6 foot tall tree, with a kitten clinging to it and laughing!-I swear!- would thunder through the room, very disconcerting.
lmao, witchdoc! I can so see that!!
Mine loves to eat flowers, more so than my green plants, although I've found teeth marks in a few leaves, as well.
Since I got him some (wheat or oat? from the pet store) grass in a pot, he's pretty much left them alone.
witchdoc - Your comment made my day. LOL!
I also wanted to post that many flowers are poisonous to cats so it's really not a great idea to experiment with them. My cat died from eating a very small amount of lilies-which are extremely toxic to cats in particular.
witchdoc-- LOL I would have loved to see it. That kitty was just making up for all the others who don't get to have such a good time at home!!
witchdoc, wonderful story.
my birds--22 of them--eat the (nonlethal) flowers I bring home.
i don't mind. they're so happy. Mostly, we bring herbs and lettuces, making arrangements of them.
we tried some "fake" flowers and plants once. ooh boy, were the birds disappointed. never again.
my Singletary is obsessed with plants or flowers,so i can only have ones that i put on high shelves. even if i have catnip grass for him, he still wants all plants. my other cats were never interested until they saw him having fun destroying one.
beautiful cats, Signe, and the wall vase looks like a winner.
Our cat, Munchausen, has successfully killed off all of our plants, one by one. Now that our windowsill garden is plantless, he'll just sit there and play with the dirt and lick the pots.
my cats knock flower arrangements over if they can get to them... but recently I made the mistake of leaving their potted catnip plant on an accessible kitchen counter overnight. (I'd watered it too much and didn't want it to leak on my book case.) morning came, and catnip roots & leaves, plus dirt, was scattered throughout the kitchen. guess it's back to the dry stuff til I find another plant outside somewhere.
What kind of birds do you have, avian mission?
That must have been hilarious, witchdoc!
I haven't had a cat in some years, but when I did my vet showed me a trick of spritzing flowers and plants with tabasco. My cat sniffed each one and never bothered them again.
I used to try various nasty-tasting sprays on plants and flowers to keep the kitties from destroying them, but it really only slowed down the attack. I have to keep all my plant life at work now, or outside (until winter comes...)
That's hilarious! My cat used to knock stuff off my shelves late at night when I was trying to sleep, but never anything glass. Thank goodness. I hope he was okay though, didn't hurt his paws, did it?
It's funny, I have plants all over my tiny apartment and my cats always leave them alone.
Signe, the mental image of the cats selling your vases, with flowers in them no less, was awesome.
LOL Some great humor here. My cats can't resist either plants or potpourri. I tried putting some dried roses in a bowl, but every day I would find a new one demolished on the floor.
I find some plants attract my cats more than others. Mine love anything strap-leaved (spider plant, ponytail plant...) I use hanging baskets for those few, or take them to the office. I had to give away my lemongrass, it was so tempting that they were crawling up screens and over other plants to get a bite. http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u63/Creative_Cat/?action=view¤t=Feb08010.jpg
Flowers go over the fireplace. Oh, and Spanish moss mulch? Forget it, I'll find it on the floor.
I keep some (nontoxic) plants in my cats' reach. Some they are just not interested in. Some just have a lot of bite marks. I've tried cayenne and bitter sprays and none have really worked too well. So I mostly try to keep them out of their way.
One of my kitties was a feral baby I found in the bushes. When I first took her in, she wanted to sleep in a potted tree. And she just cannot keep her paws out of fresh dirt. She must dig in it (she also wanted to pee in it at first, but since we solved the litter box issue, she just wants to dig and knock it all over.) http://www.flickr.com/photos/7502520@N04/689264422/
I once caught her standing on her hind legs to catch and sniff an orchid.
Fortunately, though, my cats and my potting mostly get along. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7502520@N04/2696750083/