{"id":3923,"date":"2021-12-21T06:56:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petpundit.com\/?p=3923"},"modified":"2021-12-21T06:56:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:56:11","slug":"pet-proofing-all-around-the-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/21\/pet-proofing-all-around-the-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet-proofing all around the Christmas tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I am a professional cat sitter plus I have three cats of my own. I\u2019ve been lucky when it comes to Christmas tree disasters. We always get a live tree but put it up without decorations until the cats lose interest in it. Then we add decorations. We put unbreakable ornaments on the bottom, just in case.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as wrapped presents under the tree, I don\u2019t even try. That would just be pushing my luck. But I think leaving off the ribbon would be wise. <\/span><\/p>\n

— Kate, Locust Valley, New York<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Letting the cats get used to the tree and making sure the ornaments aren\u2019t breakable are both good ideas. One of the prettiest Christmas trees I have ever seen was decorated with fake white carnation-like flowers with the wire wrapped around each branch, which made it impossible for the cats to knock off the tree. The tree looked amazing. <\/span><\/p>\n

So that cats and dogs aren\u2019t tearing open presents early, wrap them without bows and ribbons, and hold off putting them under the tree until Christmas Eve.<\/span><\/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 am a professional cat sitter plus I have three cats of my own. I\u2019ve been lucky when […]<\/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":[49,42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923"}],"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=3923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}