[FoodLady]

This question is posed to doodle owners who put up Christmas Trees last year and had inquisitive doodles roaming the house: WHAT DID YOU DO? :shock:

Ours is an interfaith household (we celebrate Hannukah and Christmas) and in the spirit of compromise have an antique aluminum Christmas tree (with revolving color wheel!)! It fits perfectly at the living room picture window in our 1955 Ranch house and we love it! It is decorated with all my 'treasure' ornaments and beautiful colored glass ornaments and is the talk of the neighborhood! :wink:

Last year we got Ebbe on the 27th of December and she was so tiny there was no problem .... this year HA! :roll:

I am trying to be proactive and nail a solution down before the holiday decorating season hits. The Menorah is up high and won't be a problem as one of us stays with it until the last candle is out ... but the tree?!

Any and all solutions (short of not putting it up) will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[blueteal]

Mary
With nine cats and a dog I have been limited in decorations
but this year I am going for the gusto and the tree is going up.
I am going to gate it with a round dog pen, that way the cats can not
climb it and Denver cannot get too close. The tree will have to be anchored to my fireplace I think, so that no cat that does climb it, by jumping can send it down on top of everyone else............

If I can do it you can too............... :wink: :wink: :wink:

 

[Cinsmom]

Cinnamon didn't bother the tree at that age. We got her the January before, so she was close to the same age as Ebbe will be. She just looked at it like it was another piece of furniture, but there's no wood (we have to go faux tree because of allergies) so she wasn't interested.

We just made sure it was in a spot where she wouldn't run into it during the 500's. Oh and I put the unbreakables on the bottom branches. Tails wag, you know!
The problem we had was any presents under the tree couldn't have bows on them. She'd have those off and chewed in no time.

 

[gracielou]

This isn't any help but I will admit the thing I worried about the most since Johnson and Tejas were both intact was they would think "hey this is a tree so we can just pee here, we don't even have to go outside anymore"

Now it didn't happen but I did worry I didn't even think about them tearing it up... :lol: :lol:

 

[Raleighsmom]

Hah!!!! Raleigh was only a baby last year at Christmas time....This year should be quite interesting!!! :wink: But I like the idea of 'gating' it off....

 

[tykesmom]

We bought a playpen from Petsmart for Tyke, which she used until just a few weeks ago, when she learned to climb out of it. Right now she is fascinated with my cockatiel, Tindy Lou, so we have been using sections of it to block her from crawling under the cage. We will probably use additional sections to block her route to the tree. Funny that she learned to climb out of it, but so far has not climbed IN to visit with the bird! I'm hoping she will do the same thing with the tree - otherwise, Christmas will be REALLY interesting!

 

[turtleaut]

Great topic, I too have been wondering about the holiday season. Last Xmas, my mom gave me all new Mardi Gras ornaments so I am a little nervous about putting it all on with Chloe prowling around the house!!!

 

[Guest]

I think Gene did this last year :lol: :

http://www.hammacher.com/publish/72376.asp

Just kidding, he used a lot of gates and has a photo, I believe!

 

[Calimom]

I know some people put their tree in a playpen to keep the babies and toddlers safe.....Not very attractive, but perhaps you can elevate the tree in the pen and drape the pen with a pretty blanket.

 

[MaxandMe]

I only had 2 years since 1983 that I could fully decorate a tree! :shock:
due to pets like cats dogs and then my kids and now i have dogs again

in past i only decorated The TOP HALF of my tree and stopped putting up string of popcorn hahhahahhaa

I also have a large wooden xpen but that didnt' work

Sooooooooooo i'd say decorate top half of tree till you KNOW your doodle wont' see those ornaments as tasty treats or toys :wink:

PS one year my cat and kids knocked over my tree 4 times and i lost almost every ornament. sooo that's why i say TOP half only

 

[lmtoth2]

we did not do a tree last year. i am in debate this year. I know Kirby wouldn't touch it...but Dex is another story He can't even leave a flip flop alone so what about a bright shiney chrismas tree ball? I bet he would try to get us to play fetch with it...haha...

we'll see - maybe we'll go w/the xpen idea or just decorate the top half...or skip it all together

 

[Ronnie]

Fred never bothers the ornaments, but he does like to unwrap the presents. We need to put the big ones in front and the little ones more to the inside so he can't pick them up to unwrap. And anything that is food, or smells good, like soaps, can't be left out.

 

[FoodLady]

I think Gene did this last year :lol: :

http://www.hammacher.com/publish/72376.asp

Just kidding, he used a lot of gates and has a photo, I believe!

We saw one like that this past weekend and my Marc LOVED it!
He thought it would be very cool to have an upside down Christmas tree.
I told him my dear old dad is rolling over in his grave now because we have an (a) artificial (b) an aluminum one!
We always had the real deal growing up!

 

[annabelles mom]

Ahhhhhhhh such sweet Memories Mary - my fave Aunt had a tree just like yours, always loved going to her house at the holidays when I was little

Annabelle was 7 months old last xmas - she never bothered the tree, went up and investigated but that was it. We have a fake (allergies) and I did not put ornies on it last year, nothing to entice her. She is also gated out of living room when we are gone and at night as we got new furiture just before xmas last year, dont trust her She could hop over the gate without a problem but she has never attempted to and hopefully never will.

Anyhow, how tall is your tree - can you put it on a table with a pretty table skirt and then put the fencing around table? If not, I'd put it up with fencing but hold off on the ornies until you see how Ebbe reacts to it.

Anchoring the tree is excellant idea - I had a cat many years ago and came home to my Huge live tree on the floor, put it back up and anchored it as there was no way to keep her out of it, she was a happy cat with her own tree for a month :wink:

 

[DebBrown]

Oh man... I hadn't even thought about this. We have a fake tree but my ornaments have been collected since I was a child and hate to see any of them chewed/devoured. I cannot even imagine Charlie leaving them alone. It seems we used a gate when my granddaughter was a baby. I'll have to think this one over.

Deb

 

[River Rat]

Mary, we do both holidays, too, but we've never had any issues with our tree from our dogs in the past. Hadn't even thought about it, either. Chouette does graze a bit, and comes up with things she thinks are fair game; today at my son's house I was helping my granddaughter with her homework and Chou kept bringing over rubber-banded packets of business cards, which I finally realized came from my son's briefcase. So I just returned them and closed it and that was the end of it. Not sure what she'll do with Christmas tree ornaments, but we shall see! Like you, we keep the menorah out of reach so that's not an issue.

Leslie

 

[gene]

I used an x-pen opened up around the tree.

 

[annabelles mom]

awwwwwww great picture Gene

I cant just see Annabelle with her feet on the xpen grabbing an ornament and a present for herself

 

[gene]

Not shown in picture.....They were taken down for the picture, but I balanced cookie sheets and muffin pans on them. It only took Jonah knocking one off once to end his curiosity! :shock: Lord knows he could just step over it now, but he doesn't. I still use the pen to keep him away from a bookshelf (he loves to read....ate the phone book today while I was at "ork"(Mindi)!!!) and it works great even without the pans now!

 

[blueteal]

I used an x-pen opened up around the tree.

I am going to copy this as it will be perfect.....................