Monday, December 03, 2007

Silent Night

As I sit here looking at the tree, I can’t help but laugh. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful tree – from the knees up it’s full of ornaments and lights; but from the knees down, well, it’s bare. There are strands of lights which have already been pulled askew, but not an ornament in sight. I’m many things, but stupid is not one of them. I have cats. Four of them. I like my ornaments, thank you. Many of them are Hallmark (insert copyright symbol here) mischievous kittens series, some “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and a couple of Thomas Kinkaid lovelies. Each one is precious to me, some more than others, and I’m not about to expose them to the destructive claws of my furbabies. I love them too, but short of using furry handcuffs (on them, not me), there’s not much I can do about it. They rarely do it in front of me but rather wait until the middle of the night to wreak their hairball havoc. I have an artificial tree and the limbs pull out easily to be happily strewn across the floor where I step on them in the morning. And they hurt. Like hell. Aidan is the most blatant offender, followed quite happily if not clumsily by Bubba. But then Aidan will eat anything: silk flowers, garbage bags, plants, etc. so what’s an artificial Christmas tree or two? Ribbons and bows on presents? That went out with the cavecat. They don’t bother the wrapping paper, no fun in that. But Neely Shae loves tags and ribbons, my own personal shredder. BooBear is the only one who seems to leave the tree alone, with only a sniff or two. But I know better, he’s a cat. And he has plans for that tree.

39 comments:

Spy Scribbler said...

I can't wait to get our tree!!!!! We have those unbreakable ornaments for the kids. We leave plenty at the bottom, and they seem to leave the uppermost part of the tree alone.

One likes to climb it, but the others are too fat and lazy, LOL.

Bailey Stewart said...

Don't give mine any ideas. LOL

Shesawriter said...

Your tree can't look any worse than the one we had last year. It was anemic and oddly shaped. I don't think any of us even cared. LOL!

Bailey Stewart said...

So, kinda like Charlie Brown's tree?

Brandy said...

I hear you! We put any breakable ornaments on the top 3rd of the tree and the rest of the way down we put things that are unbreakable. We'll see how it goes when we get our tree later this month. Athena climbed inside the tree last year, so I can't wait! *g*

Bailey Stewart said...

Quit mentioning climbing the tree. Bubba reads this blog!

Joely Sue Burkhart said...

When I was a kid, we had a cat that kept leaving unpleasant surprises behind the tree. We decided it reminded him of the "great outdoors" and he quit using his litterbox. Solution? We put the litterbox behind the tree. :-)

Bailey Stewart said...

Well, at least I don't have that problem. LOL

Anonymous said...

Haha! I have seen this strange-looking tree, and in the dimness of the room the colored lights are lovely - it's when the lights are off that it really does look a bit strange - as if it were holding the skirt of its beautiful dress up off the floor/sidewalk/street.

The 1st night I had my tree up the kitty-babies tipped it over. Only 1 broken ornament, surprisingly. Buster likes to sleep under the tree where it's nice & warm from the lights.

Bailey Stewart said...

It does look beautiful at night, it's really only during the day that you notice the "deformity".

At least you only lost one ornament.

Melissa Amateis said...

I experienced the destruction of my cats last night - or rather, ONE of the cats - Gretchen. She knocked a few ornaments off and pulled the ribbon off. But since I've been trying to catch her in the act and discipline her so she knows not to mess around with the tree, I caught her last night all snuggled up underneath it, asleep. I didn't have the heart to wake her up. :-) She just looked so darn CUTE!

They did spill hubby's water in our bedroom, though, and soaked his cell phone. He threatened to get rid of them after that! Must do damage control tonight...

Christa said...

I finally broke down last year and got rid of my tree. I now have a 2 1/2' ceramic tree that has "lights"(has a bulb inside and holes where there are colored pegs) and a music box that plays Silent night. I don't dare move it so it stays out year round. I don't have cats but my sister does so when she sets up her tree she does decorate to the bottom but she puts unbreakable ornaments at the bottom because sure enough ornaments are found around the house in the morning.

Kate Johnson said...

Oh, I hear you on that. Mind you, last year I had two nine-month-old kittens and was convinved they'd wreck my tree...and they totally ignored it, along with all the ribbons and bows I compulsively festoon each gift with.

However, I have a feeling the puppy won't be quite so forgiving...

Bailey Stewart said...

Melissa - ouch on the spilled water.

I had a cat many years ago named Alexandria. I got her at approximately 4 months old in October, so you do the math for December. I walked through the living room and glanced at the tree only to see a little kitten head poking out near the top! She didn't break a thing, but I did while trying to get her out.

Bailey Stewart said...

Christa -
but she puts unbreakable ornaments at the bottom

In what I'm sure was a moment of insanity, Bebo proposed that I put silk balls near the bottom. Silk? Claws? Empty styrofoam balls with trails of silk scattered across the room? I don't think so.

Bailey Stewart said...

Cat -
and they totally ignored it

Are you positive they were cats?

Puppy + tree = Acckkkk

Anonymous said...

Your tree looks like mine! lol

Bailey Stewart said...

Ah, a fellow cat decorator!

Tori Lennox said...

That's one good thing about not having pets. We don't have to worry about them eating the tree ornaments. :)

Bailey Stewart said...

Oh, but Tori, you miss out on so many other things.

She says, with a big, fat Aidan on her lap, keeping her warm.

Travis Erwin said...

I have two young boys and they do love tearing into wrapping paper, as well as the tree.

Wanna trade?

Bailey Stewart said...

Um, no .... *gg*

Thanks for dropping by.

Dru said...

I have no cats here, but my mom says her cat totally destroyed the bottom of her tree and stalks it like there's someone hidden behind a branch.

Bailey Stewart said...

Dru - there is, they're called elves. *nodding head wisely*

Anonymous said...

I've been extremely lucky so far with at least 6 out of 7 of my cats. We always put up a huge but real tree and I purposely buy the ones with the stiff and prickly needles lol. I've been collecting ornaments for 38 years so I try to keep them on the high side and anything nonbreakable on the bottom. They like to sleep under it and sometimes chase each other around it and one cat will bat at a few of the bottom ornaments. BUT I have a 7 month old kitten so time will tell. We're having our tree trimming party on Sunday.

I have one cat that does eat ribbon so I've stopped that. And one likes to drink the water lol. My only tragedy was after putting the presents under the tree and leaving the room, we heard a horrible crash. I think they were running around on top of the packages and the tree came down. Lost a lot of prescious ornaments so we make sure to anchor it better now.

Sandy J said...

I bet the tree is still beautiful! Do the little furbabies like to sit and watch the lights?

Bailey Stewart said...

Jeanne - LOL at the drinking of the water. I just find it better to keep it bare, I don't want them in the habit of swiping at ornaments.

I'm sorry, but I have to laugh at the tree falling over too. I'm really sorry you lost some precious ornaments though.

Bailey Stewart said...

Sandy - oddly, they don't watch the lights. Maybe it's because I yell at them any time they even look towards the tree. LOL

Toni Anderson said...

We used to have that trouble with puppies, then kids--finally we can hang ornaments all over the tree :)

Bailey Stewart said...

Since I will always have cats, I don't think that day will ever come for me. *gg*

Aimlesswriter said...

For years we had a hook in the ceiling above the tree. That way we could tie the tree to that hook and the two cats couldn't knock it over in the middle of the night. They seemed to think that was the best thing in the world. There were many mornings we woke up to a cat clinging to the top of the tree and grinning at us.
With three dogs (one my daughter brought home from college) and two cats...we won't see ornaments on the bottom of the tree for a long time...

Aimlesswriter said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bernita said...

oh yes, that bare bottom sounds familiar.
I can tell you dogs are no better.
Not only do they have tails like flails, there is a reason why a popular verse in our family ends with "Dogs like to pee on Christmas Trees."

Bailey Stewart said...

Aimless - years ago, before I was born, the family had a puppy at Christmas time, and they hung the tree from ceiling so he couldn't get to it. Mom kept saying we should do that with the cat - I kept telling her "mom, the cats can jump!"

Bailey Stewart said...

Bernita - ROFLMAO

Siobhan said...

This will be our first Christmas at home for the longest time and the first tree for both cats. We'll see how they react, but judging by Sophie's love of "gardening" in my pot plants it will probably be "fun and games" LOL

Saskia Walker said...

Just think, it's going to be like opening an advent calendar every day, checking out the state the kitties left it in ;)

Bailey Stewart said...

Siobhan - Good luck. LOL

Bailey Stewart said...

Saskia - if the cats survive that long. *gg*