by Ruth
(England)
We cats realise that most visitors to PoC will know all this already, so this article is just a reminder and mainly for people who have a cat in their lives for the first time who may not realise what a miserable and somewhat dangerous time Christmas can be for us if they don’t ‘think cat’
Remember it’s our Christmas too and please ‘think cat’ throughout all your preparations and celebrations.
Cats love climbing trees, so Christmas trees are irresistible to us, especially to kittens and young cats. Real yew trees have sharp pine needles, which if swallowed accidentally can cause us serious damage inside.
Even the water from a real tree is poisonous to us cats if we investigate the tub the tree is standing in and sample some of that water.
Poster by Ruth
Please consider having an artificial tree which is much safer. Place it away from any furniture we could jump from and make sure it has a solid unmovable base.
Glass baubles are another temptation to us as we can’t resist a swipe at them to knock them off the tree, but if they shatter they can cause our mouths or paws to be cut. Please use tree decorations made from materials which won’t harm us if we do manage to get them off the tree.
Christmas tree lights have electric wires and young cats don’t know it’s very dangerous to chew those wires, so if you must have lights, they should be tucked right away and never left on when we are alone in the room with the tree.
Don’t think hanging mothballs around the bottom of the tree to keep us away is a good idea, cats have died from batting at them and then licking the poison from their paws.
Tinsel and ribbons can be fatal if we swallow a bit while playing as it can block our insides. We don’t want to spend Christmas at the vets undergoing emergency surgery but some of us are silly at times and don’t know bad things can happen just because we love playing with dangly things.
Artificial snow sprayed on the window could tempt us to lick it and that is something else which can make us ill.
Never leave us alone with lit candles in the room, burnt paws or noses can happen or even a fire can start from our innocent investigation of the flickering flame.
Make sure Christmas plants are not in our reach, Mistletoe, Holly berries, Amaryllis, Poinsettia and Christmas Roses are poisonous to cats, as are all varieties of Lilies.
On Christmas Day please don’t give us cooked turkey or chicken bones, bury them deep in a bin with a secure lid so we are not tempted by their aroma to dig them out. We will love a bit of cooked chicken or turkey cut up small but rich food to excess can upset our delicate tummies.
Don’t allow children to feed us chocolate, most of us cats know not to eat things that harm us but when we are young we aren’t always sensible.
If a lot of guests are around we would be much happier shut safely in a room with our food, water, scratching post, litter tray and toys. If Santa Claws has brought us new catnip toys please make sure there are no long tails we could get stuck in our teeth or throat and no loose ears or eyes we could swallow when playing.
It seems a lot of rules, maybe visitors could think of even more we may have forgotten ?
Those rules ensure a wonderful and happy Christmas for us and for those who love us.
Please, always ‘think cat’
Just bringing this old article back after reading someone’s ‘advice’ on facebook that mothballs hung around the base of a Christmas tree keeps cats off it.
It seems everyone still doesn’t know how toxic they are to cats.
Wow, I am shocked to hear that. That is a death sentence for cats at Christmas, pretty well.
This is Elisa’s story:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/we-lost-4-cats-in-one-week-by-mothball-poisoning.html
It’s ignorance spreading ‘advice’ like that Michael isn’t it!
I’m sharing my Christmas safety for cats article far and wide in the hopes it will save cats lives.
It is shocking ignorance. It is worse than neglect. I do believe though that cat caretaking standards have risen thanks to people like us and there are many people like us. The internet has allowed us to carry the message internationally and far and wide.
Another warning about Pre-lit Christmas tree. My husband found one of our cats hanging upside down from our Christmas tree. The cat some how got his paw tangled in the light wires. My husband had to cut the wire to save my cat’s paw.
Wow. That sounds horrific. Thanks for sharing, Nancy. Horrible thing to have been involved in.
Thank goodness your husband found your cat in time! Thank you so much for sharing this and for bringing this article back to notice, with Christmas approaching again.
Yes Ruth, I seem to remember a nice holiday poster you made one year. Am I remembering correctly?
As well as the one above? Not sure, I’ll have a search xx