Our cats and the Christmas tree
The holidays are here! There are beautiful lights up, people are out shopping for presents, and there are Christmas trees in peoples homes! Well animal permitting there are. This is our boys first year with a Christmas tree. Ayrie has seen them for years and could care less. Haha has seen a couple but isn’t phased by them. So it was really the boys we were wondering about the day we brought the tree in. And we were pleasantly surprised! We were fully expecting it to be like the videos on the internet where the cats are climbing in the tree and knocking it over or broken ornaments are everywhere. In preparation we even went and got dollar store ornaments so we wouldn’t care if they broke and they were harder to break since they are plastic! On top of that we found bells and put those on the tree as an early warning system in case they tried any funny business! And nothing! Until two days ago…
Mars chewed through the cord for the lights in the wall. He is fine thank heaven. Of all the things we were expecting I can honestly tell you that was the last thing (possibly not even) on my list of worries. The tree itself with the balls and bells looked far more enticing to us than the cord. But suddenly the tree was dead and the cord was looking a little funny in the wall. Mars is a very smart cat though which is both a blessing and a curse in some ways. But in this case we have noticed he is giving the tree a wider berth since the other night and even with the string of lights replaced and back on he seems to be content to just look at it from a foot or two away. We are also trying to up playtime so he doesn’t get bored and begin chomping on things again. When Mars begins chewing that is our signal that he hasn’t been getting enough stimulation and he needs some dedicated playtime with us and a toy. Normally he directs this behavior at card board boxes around the house since we are still slowly unpacking from the move. But now we are aware that once the boxes are gone he may redirect this behavior to other items in the house. I am going to take this lesson and attempt to use it to prevent something worse from happening in the future. I recognize that the couple days leading up to this we as cat parents had been slacking and not giving any of them their playtime because we had prioritized cleaning and cooking for ourselves. So this is just a post to say pay attention to your animals behaviors, and try to give them what they need! It helps both you and them! We are not perfect and I am sure we will mess up again at giving them their needed playtime in the future unfortunately. But now that we have had this lesson I have set up reminders on my phone for when I get home at night and on my days off to play with the cats and get ayrie her exercise as well! Sometimes I need these reminders because I get caught up in other things and having a checklist works the best for me so I can deprioritize some things and focus on others.
The cats and Ayrie’s exercise is now on the top priority list for their safety and the safety of our home! An exercised animal is a happy animal. And we like having happy animals in our home! I am grateful that this lesson was not a harsher one and hope I can be better for them from here on! Have you ever had something like this happen with your pet? And how has that changed how you do things now?
