{"id":3921,"date":"2021-12-21T06:56:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petpundit.com\/?p=3921"},"modified":"2021-12-21T06:56:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:56:11","slug":"pet-and-kid-proofing-the-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/21\/pet-and-kid-proofing-the-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet- and kid- proofing the Christmas tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Cathy,<\/span><\/p>\n

I read your column in the Chicago Tribune\/Lake County News-Sun, and I enjoy it very much. You asked for stories about keeping a Christmas tree upright when animals are present. Here\u2019s mine.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a retired art teacher, but many years ago I also had some private students. One of my students was extremely talented, so I got permission to take her on a field trip to a local art gallery owned by a friend of mine. When I arrived at her home, her step-mom invited me in. Theirs was a blended family with each parent having three children. I noticed that the Christmas tree had a chain wrapped around the trunk and firmly attached to a large eye-bolt that screwed into the wall. I asked, “What’s up with the chain and eye-bolt?” She replied, “Six kids, five dogs, three cats, what do you think?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for writing such an informative column. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 Nancy, Gurnee, Illinois<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Nancy,<\/span><\/p>\n

Your letter made me laugh as I imagined the mayhem in that household. Both kids and pets can knock over the Christmas tree, so I love the family\u2019s industrial strategy for keeping their tree upright. An unbreakable chain hooked to the wall seems about right for their family of 15. Thanks for sharing.<\/p>\n

C<\/span>athy M. Rosenthal is a longtime animal advocate, author, columnist and pet expert who has more than 25 years in the animal welfare field. Send your pet questions, stories and tips to <\/span><\/i>cathy@petpundit.com<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Please include your name, city, and state. You can follow her @cathymrosenthal<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Cathy, I read your column in the Chicago Tribune\/Lake County News-Sun, and I enjoy it very much. You asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}