Photo Contest - O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree (12/7-12/13)

[turbo]

Mine looks about as straight as hypatia's, thanks to the cat. It's a fake tree, so she also manages to knock branches loose that need to be reattached every few days. I'm wondering if next year I should get a live tree...a good, prickly, sticky blue spruce...that should stop her from climbing it, right?

No, but it will ensure that she will deposit the pitch everywhere until she has encountered enough dust to coat it.

In order not to waste perfectly good trees, my wife and I bought a very realistic fake tree. We didn't install the very lowest set of branches when we had ferrets, and that worked kind of OK until we got Taz. He loved to jump and climb and fancied himself a pretty good-looking tree-topper. He didn't knock the tree over, but he managed to trash a few ornaments. We haven't had a tree since then (fake or real). Our decoration is usually limited to a nice hand-made wreath on the front door.

 

[nazzard]

Merry Christmas!

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8853/treetu1.jpg

 

[Moonbear]

No, but it will ensure that she will deposit the pitch everywhere until she has encountered enough dust to coat it.

Thanks for the warning. I thought the needles might at least make a good cat comb and relieve me of some grooming assistance for a while.

We didn't install the very lowest set of branches when we had ferrets, and that worked kind of OK until we got Taz. He loved to jump and climb and fancied himself a pretty good-looking tree-topper.

I wish that would work with Ember, but she doesn't just climb up the tree from the bottom, she DIVES in from any nearby surface...the sofa, the TV, the CD racks. Hasn't toppled it...yet...but she is still trying to claim all the ornaments as toys.

 

[turbo]

Thanks for the warning. I thought the needles might at least make a good cat comb and relieve me of some grooming assistance for a while.

Nope. Cats do not like sticky stuff on them and will actively try to scrub it off on anything handy, like your favorite easy chair or your bed. Spruce pitch is very sticky and your cat will not like the taste of it, and so will not try to groom it off with tongue-washing. Your belongings will take the brunt of the cleaning.

I wish that would work with Ember, but she doesn't just climb up the tree from the bottom, she DIVES in from any nearby surface...the sofa, the TV, the CD racks. Hasn't toppled it...yet...but she is still trying to claim all the ornaments as toys.

It didn't work with Taz, either. He would choose anything that he thought was close enough (a love-seat, sofa, or chair) and launch himself at the tree. We weren't smart enough to have fastened the ornaments with twist-ties, and we lost a few to impact damage as he explored the tree. I should have known. We got him as a kit, and I was working at home one day and my hat fell on the floor. The coat-rack was located over a furnace heater vent, so I figured that the updraft from the vent knocked my hat off. I went over and picked it up, and went to put it on top of the rack, and there was little Taz on top of the rack. He apparently had jumped high enough to grab the bottom of my wife's long wool coat, and then climbed to the top of the rack "just because". A previous ferret named Pancho (cute albino male) was a good jumper, too, but his big talent was zippers. If you set down anything with a zipper on it, he would open it in seconds. My wife used to come home after work with a young co-worker and they would work out together in our home gym. Lisa often just tossed her gym-bag on the floor, and we would have to scour the house trying to find her underwear, her clean socks, her car keys, etc. Ferrets love to steal and they hide everything they take. Pancho once opened my cousin's purse he and his co-conspirators stole her savings pass-book, check-book, and wallet. She got home with her keys, etc intact, and then discovered the next day that some stuff was missing. She came over and we found her stuff distributed in some places where the ferrets did not normally hide things. I told her that we taught them to "go for the green"

 

[Moonbear]

We weren't smart enough to have fastened the ornaments with twist-ties, and we lost a few to impact damage as he explored the tree.

I thought I was smart to think of that, but it doesn't work either. I forgot that cats LOVE to play with twist ties. It just makes the game more challenging.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Tsu took the camera and I don't have any old tree pics.

Tinsel and cats go well together. The tinsel goes in one end and comes out the other. Then you can just hang it on the tree again.

 

[Danger]

Merry Christmas!

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/8853/treetu1.jpg

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What do Chernobel mutants have to do with Christmas?

a good, prickly, sticky blue spruce...that should stop her from climbing it, right?

The only proper tree, if you insist upon having one, is the Scotch Pine.

My christmas tree this year is a little tree i cut out of a 5 inch green flashcard and pasted on top of a candle so I had something to put the presents i bought around...lol.

I somehow have the feeling that you have more than enough family support during the holiday season as well as other times. If not, just pop on down to (you know where), and there'll be a place at the table for you.

 

[Integral]

Scotch Pine? No, they don't make. A Doug Fir or Noble Fir is a REAL Christmas tree. I have a pic of my son & daugher in law standing by the one that got away. I may have to post it in the disqualified thread.

 

[scorpa]

I somehow have the feeling that you have more than enough family support during the holiday season as well as other times. If not, just pop on down to (you know where), and there'll be a place at the table for you.

Oh yeah that's why I didn't bother to go buy a tree and all the decorations, I'm going to be going home for christmas and it will be all decorated up there. Just didn't want to waste the money on a tree when I won't be here for Christmas, but then I got jealous of all the neighbours and improvised haha

 

[Moonbear]

Tinsel and cats go well together. The tinsel goes in one end and comes out the other. Then you can just hang it on the tree again.

When I got the fake tree, I stopped using tinsel anyway (I don't want to deal with picking it clean every year, and old, tangled tinsel just wouldn't look right). But, yeah, the thought crossed my mind!

The only proper tree, if you insist upon having one, is the Scotch Pine.

Nuh uh! I love blue spruce for Christmas (once you learn to wear sturdy gloves to handle it). No other Christmas tree has such a wonderful scent, and they have lots of space between all the branches to hang all the ornaments (I bet Zz could have fit even MORE ornaments on that tree of his if he had a blue spruce).

Actually, I've just always enjoyed seeing how people's Christmas trees reflect their own personal styles. Some will just cram a tree full of brightly colored ornaments and lights and tinsel and garland, and others go for a very simply decorated tree with just a few cherished ornaments and plain white lights. Some prefer a tall, skinny tree, or a perfecly cone-shaped one, and others a short, fat, slightly rounded in the middle tree (those are my favorites). Some like an elegant tree, neatly tucked into a corner, and others a huge, scraggly tree that fills the living room (my aunt used to get those...you'd have to squeeze past it to get into the house, but it was so fun, and that was just so her to just be goofy and wacky...and her whole tree was decorated with handmade ornaments...and when we visited, we were always welcome to help ourselves to craft supplies to make more ornaments, and those ornaments would always get added to the tree, no matter how sad they looked...she's my favorite aunt, if you couldn't tell).