It hardly seems possible that Thanksgiving has already passed… and ready or not, that means the holiday season is upon us! At our house, the beginning of December means it’s time to pull out all the Christmas lights, decorations and ornaments. Our cats LOVE this time of year. New toys everywhere! It can be quite the challenge to feel like we’re making progress as we try to decorate the tree… seems that for every ornament we put up, one mysteriously falls down… which brings me to our helpful holiday suggestion.
Healthy Cat Tip of the Day
Our tip of the day is something we learned nearly 8 years ago: Decorate the tree with unbreakable balls.
It may seem like a no-brainer, but believe it or not, it took two downed trees and many broken (and very sentimental) ornaments for us to learn that if we want a Christmas tree with ornaments on it – it’s time to invest in unbreakable balls.
But what about all our sentimental ornaments and decorations? It’s all about strategy and logistics here… One approach that has worked well for us over the years is to get two trees. I know this may sound impracticable and excessive, but it’s an approach that has saved our Christmas spirit more than a few times… and the extra tree just increases out Christmas cheer!
Here’s how it works: We put up one large tree in our high traffic/high visibility room. This tree is firmly anchored (nearly impossible to knock over – even when climbed) and then decorated with an assortment of unbreakable balls and other durable but beautiful ornaments. Then we invite all that cats to come explore the new ‘toy’. While they are distracted and overcome with Christmas joy, we make our move…
We take all our sentimental ornaments and sneak off to the less trafficked (but still occasionally occupied) room. Here we set up our second tree. It’s smaller, and still firmly anchored in a hefty tree stand… but goes nearly unnoticed by our festive felines. We’ve had one or two of the strategically placed bottom ornaments knocked off into the soft tree skirt below, but mainly this second tree seems just for us. The big tree is where all the action is… and our babies practically live in it all season.
So, there it is – our plan of action to survive the holidays with a house full of cats. How do you do it? Please help us (an others) discover new ways to make this season fun, festive and fail-safe for all the people and fine felines in our lives! Just leave your ideas in the comments below. 🙂
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