...because home doesn't happen overnight.

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Want in on a little secret? I decorated for Christmas before Halloween this year. Cue the record scratch.

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For two days in October I pretended it was December. Well, sort of. We normally do a live garland on the mantel and a live tree but those were nowhere to be found pre-Halloween. Mr. Fig was a somewhat believable stand-in. I rummaged through red and green totes in the attic. I saved empty boxes and wrapped fake presents pressies. (My apologies for misspelling the Aussie short form in my previous post. Google can’t be trusted.) I crafted paper dot garlands from glitter paper, a circle punch, hot glue and jute string. I found the cutest little cardboard Christmas tree at JoAnn’s. I rigged two of these paper star lights and one of these in the front window along with a few cheap & easy embroidery hoops turned 90º. Hint: Use fishing line. It’s strong and nearly invisible.

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I was simultaneously working on the kids’ Halloween costumes. My kids were baffled by my Christmas in October antics.

So why all the fuss? In short, Joss & Main asked me to be a part of their holiday campaign and I said yes. Deadlines were involved.

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The long answer? I’m only one of four bloggers participating in the #HolidayHostess campaign now through the end of the year. Each week a different blogger will be featured and you can shop their look via a flash sale. You also get an inside scoop on each blogger’s holiday traditions. Today is the first day of the campaign and I happen to be this week’s hostess. If you’re interested, you can check out the sale here and read about my holiday traditions here. There are some great pieces up for grabs. Act soon! The sale ends 12/9/14.

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In other news, we’re sticking with tradition and buying a live tree again this year. But I’m nervous! How does one go about keeping cute kitties out of Christmas trees?! You all were so helpful when we adopted Cheetah a few months ago. I’d love to hear your tips for surviving the holidays with a tree and kitty intact.

images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

68 Comments

02.December.2014

Congrats, I was surprised when I saw the Joss & Main emailed today and recognized that living room!

My only kitty advice is hold back on the breakable ornaments and don’t use tinsel (our cats would eat it and it wasn’t pretty on the other end)!

02.December.2014

My cats don’t bother the artificial tree too much. The live tree was way too tempting to them. :( I also advise keeping any breakable ornaments, garland, or dangly ANYTHING away from the bottom of the tree. I even wrap my hooks around the branch so the ornaments won’t fall off if my cats do something crazy. I think your kitty will get over the tree in time. New things are always so fun for cats, but they move onto bigger and better things. :)

Absolutely don’t put any sort of tinsel or fake icicle things on your tree. Cats are attracted to them and like to try to eat them, and they can wrap up in their intestines and cause blockage and death. That’s definitely rule #1!!

Don’t put breakable ornaments down low. I keep mine way up high and the cats haven’t ever messed with them. Instead, I hang my cheaper, plastic balls down low and just deal with finding one or two rolling around on the floor every morning.

Don’t be afraid to keep a water bottle handy to squirt Cheetah with if you see her heading to the tree. Mine have learned to ignore it when my husband and I are around, because we discipline them, but it’s fair game when we’ve gone to bed… thus the random ornaments on the floor!

02.December.2014

You can tie the tree to the ceiling with fishing wire & little hooks. It’s a pain, but if she likes to climb trees it’ll keep it from falling over. Good luck!

02.December.2014

we ended up having to buy a new artificial one that was very full around the base and the trunk. With our older tree it had way too many “entry spots” where they could just start their upward climb on the trunk.

02.December.2014

Growing up, my mom used to only hang bells from the bottom of the tree to alert us when the cat tried anything. It usually happened a time or two at the beginning and then they’d get the hint.

It all depends on the cat. Our cat, Lilly, loves our tree but will not climb in it, rather she lays under it and tries to knock ornaments off. Not sure what I’d do if she was a climber.

03.December.2014

I’m going to use your idea of giving extended family letters about things done in their honor – big YES to presence over presents!:)

The previous comments have covered most of the bases with kitties and trees (placement of breakable ornaments, don’t use decorations they may eat). They are a little less likely to try and climb it as they get bigger and older too.

The only things I would add is to keep claws clipped, and firmly tie up the tree from at least two different points. So if Cheetah is determined to climb, at least your tree won’t come crashing down in the middle of the night. (Unfortunately this won’t prevent your cat from crashing down out of the tree, or from jumping out of the tree…right at you…when you don’t even realize she’s in it….so be prepared for all that hilarity!:))

03.December.2014

Agree with Darnetha–I think it really depends on the cat. My cat is pretty uninterested in our tree, but she’s a big ol’ scaredy pants. She’s more interested in trying to drink out of the tree bowl (don’t let them do that! Pine isn’t awesome for cats and sometimes the trees have weird fertilizers/pesticides in them), so I make sure to wrap the tree stand securely with some kind of fabric cover so she can’t get in. I’ve also heard of wrapping chicken wire over the base, but my cat is lazy so we never have to do anything other than the fabric.

03.December.2014

Just purchased the Exeter mirror! It was exactly what I needed to finish off my bedroom project. Great find- thanks!

03.December.2014

Ah, the fond memories of childhood Christmas’s past. Many years ago the dog would chase the cat. The cat would climb the tree. The dog would try to follow. And CRASH down would come the tree! We didn’t anchor the tree to the wall or ceiling because we were forbidden by my Dad to put holes in the plaster walls, even tiny ones. This happened multiple times every year. Many vintage ornaments were lost. It was also fun to walk into the room and see the cat hanging out in the tree, just chillin. This was also the cat that would hide on top of the refrigerator until someone walked past and then would pounce scaring them!

Fast forward 35 years or so and my cat won’t climb the tree but she will knock off low hanging ornaments to play with, so I concur with the other advice of no breakable ornaments down low.

My biggest problem is with my dog “marking” the tree. Nothing like dog pee on presents to put a damper on Christmas morning! Lesson learned. We now use a baby gate around the tree and remove it for pictures and quickly put it back in place.

03.December.2014

good luck with the cat and the tree – I gave up some years ago. I tried all the tricks about not decorating the bottom part of the tree, I made sure the tree wasn’t within easy leaping distance from other furniture etc. The old boy was good, but the younger one just climbed the tree non-stop and after a couple of years of waiting for him to grow out of it, I’ve given up. I do other decorations so its still festive, but no tree for the foreseeable future :)

03.December.2014

Our cat has never been interested in climbing/attacking our live tree beying knocling off the bottom few ornaments. But you can stop them drinking the water by putting some orange/lemon juice in it and a little apple cider vinegar. I have a friend who gets an artifical tree and sprays it with the vinegar and orange juice mix and leaves it there for a week before decorating it. Her cat doesn’t touch the tree anymore. Good luck! And beautiful decor :-)

03.December.2014

I must say I LOVE your style and blog!

Every cat reacts differently around the tree and let’s just say in previous years my two felines did an excellent job driving us NUTS with the tree! Chewing, climbing, ripping ornaments off the tree, and so forth. This year I was determined to find a remedy and did some research and experimenting…so far so good! Like really really good!

All cats hate the the smell and taste of citrus. Who knew? We used this 100% Non-aerosol natural Pure Citrus Air Freshener and sprayed it all over our artificial tree when we were putting it up. We also cut up some fresh orange and lemon peels stuck them on a plate and slid them under the tree skirt. It has worked wonders. They would get close and with one whiff of the citrus they would sort of back off. The scent is very strong at first but sort of dies down. Cats are so sensitive to the scent they rather stay away. You can re-spray as time goes on if needed.

Good luck & Happy Holidays!!

Here’s the Pure Citrus link:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pure-Citrus-7-oz-Orange-Air-Freshener-NA222/202528023?N=5yc1vZbqs5

03.December.2014

Squirt the cat with a little water when she gets near the tree. Or put some coins in a plastic milk jug and shake whenever she goes near it. My two cats haven’t gone near our trees in years!

03.December.2014

Try and tie the upper half of the tree to a nail in the wall to give it a little extra support. Then, you gotta watch the cat and stop her if she tries to go up! all about training

You can also try orange peels or citrus spray on the tree. Cats dont generally like citrus

03.December.2014

Thanks for the link to the citrus spray and all the tips!

03.December.2014

Oh my. This is going to be fun. Why hasn’t someone invented a cat/dog-proof tree yet?!

03.December.2014

I do not own a cat myself, but I was just discussing this very thing with my brother over thanksgiving, and he had a unique solution. His cat likes to climb into the tree and sit on the branches, so he wrapped a few cinder blocks as pretend presents and nestled them under the bottom of the tree. It keeps the kitty from getting around the trunk to climb in, as well as supporting any branches he tries to sit on. If you don’t have spare cinder blocks sitting around (but who doesn’t ? :)), I think sturdy amazon corrugated cardboard boxes would be effective, too. I think that plus the citrus spray sounds like it would go far in preventing any disasters. Good luck, and congrats on the Joss and Main sale!

03.December.2014

Hahaha! I have missed several posts, did not realize your kitty was named Cheetah, and thought your headline was about “keeping cheetah prints out of Christmas decorations.” HAHAHA. I was like, “What does she have against animal prints?”

I suggest un-decorating the bottom of the tree & keeping a bottle of water on hand to spray. Happy Holidays!

03.December.2014

Secure it to a wall or furniture if you can! That way it won’t topple over if they climb it.

03.December.2014

I have to veto the pressies abbreviation. Those sound charming in an Aussie accent, but we Americans end up sounding like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1KhybdWZCI

Glad that you mentioned how this was Christmas in October. I scanned through the photos first and was marveling at how long the trees stay green in Cincinnati. :)

03.December.2014

Put unbreakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree. In my 50+ years of owning pets I’ve only had a dog/cat cause a problem maybe twice.
Decorate the bottom of your tree like you have a toddler in the house :)

03.December.2014

Oops – forgot about the no tinsel rule. Since I haven’t used it in ages the thought never crossed my mind. But yep – keep that away from the critters too!!!!!

03.December.2014

Love all the kitty tips (and your Joss & Main campaign, too)! We have three cats at home and tend not to have issues with climbing. I agree with the non-breakables lower down (I do find the occasional wayward ornament has been stolen); hoping this works with my much-more-mobile toddler this year, too!

Oh, and hoping Cheetah’s not like my Jasper! He’s a “paper ripper/eater.” I have to cover all the presents with blankets and towels at night and while we’re at work so that I don’t have to worry about his digestion or repair his wrapping damage. THAT’S a good look.

03.December.2014

I have 4 cats and none of them climb our tree. The most they will do is bat at the low branches. I would see how Cheetah does, she may not even be interested. Follow all the suggestions so far, NO TINSEL and do NOT let her drink the water. A lot of tree places will put chemicals at the cut of the tree to make it stay greener longer and that will make her very sick.

Training her consistently now to not get in the tree is the best thing you can do for the future. Keep that spray bottle handy, and I love the idea of using bells to alert you. Good luck!

03.December.2014

Luckily my cat is lazy so she just sniffs around and lays under the tree. She hasn’t even knocked the shatter proof balls off the bottom of the tree. Our tree is a little sappy so she did give herself an off center mohawk which make us giggle. I really should give her a bath but it’s hilarious! Don’t judge me too harshly.

03.December.2014

my coworker’s cat died from drinking the water under the tree since the tree was sprayed with chemicals. not to scare you, or anything, but just be aware. i’ve only had fake trees so we never worried about that, plus we keep our tree in the basement, with the door closed, and they only go down there when we go down there. i wouldn’t trust them if the tree was in the living room or something. good luck!
b

03.December.2014

When we had real trees when I was little, my dad put that cayenne pepper spray on the tree base. It kept our cat away. He put it on the bottom branches at first but we found it really dried out the branches and he had to clip them back after a couple of days. Putting it on the tree stand seemed to work.

03.December.2014

hopefully you will get lucky and your cat will ignore the tree, mine has thus far, but if not the idea of citrus spray sounds like a good one. i love your blog and your cute kitty!

03.December.2014

Every cat is different, but I’d say to keep soft, non-breakable ornaments low and don’t be afraid to use a spray water bottle. We used one with our cat growing up, and we got to the point where we’d leave the actual bottle sitting underneath the tree! The mere sight of it scared her away, and as she got older we didn’t even need to use it. She just understood that the tree was off limits (or maybe it just got less exciting in her older years). On the flipside, I had a cat as an adult who was completely oblivious to the fact that we even had a tree in the house (aloof much?). Good luck! If anything, you’ll have some funny stories to talk about with the kids in the future!

03.December.2014

Our cats are too old and lazy to try climbing the tree now, but they always did when they were smaller. We didn’t bother trying to stop them – instead we just made sure the tree was secure. You can tie it up, like a few people suggested, but what we did was attach a square piece of plywood directly to the tree stand (there are usually holes in the bottom of the stands, I think). It was (or at least seemed to be) even more sturdy than when it was tied to the wall, and the tree skirt covers the wood so you don’t see that it’s there the way you would a string coming off the tree. Bonus, makes it more kid-proof, too. ha!
Good luck!!

03.December.2014

As everyone else has stated- it really depends on the cat.

Leave the tree undecorated for a few days to see how the cat reacts to it. If kitty loooooves the tree, definitely put unbreakable ornaments at the bottom. Also try finding a spot where she can’t launch herself onto the tree from a nearby space. If she does do that- try to anchor the tree to the wall (temporarily) so that if she does launch herself at the tree she doesn’t knock it over and break everything.

Avoid pine trees- they’re bad for cats- the needles can puncture their intestines if they eat them and the sap is poisonous (which also means the water is poisonous). Fir trees are safer for cats. Make sure the tree water bowl is completely covered so the cat can’t get to the tree water (we use a tree basket)

Also- spraying the bottom with citrus helps (or put up cute dried citrus ornaments). Definitely no tinsel as that shreds their intestines too.

Hopefully your kitty will be less interested in trees than ours are! Best of luck!

03.December.2014

Luckily our cat doesn’t try to climb the tree and after a day or two generally ignores it, but I’ve heard cats hate aluminum foil, so if Cheetah tries to climb it maybe put that around the base? Our cat does occasionally play with the ornaments on the bottom branches, so we put non-breakable stuff on the bottom (also useful for toddlers). She loves taking our felt bird ornaments hostage.

03.December.2014

Gorgeous as always!

A spray bottle anytime kitty pays too much attention to the tree can work. We found ours just liked to hide underneath and didn’t get too crazy. Although christmas bows were a battle. Also, our cats hate to be blown on [weird]. So we do that anytime they do something bad and they run away and don’t try it again! Remember… no tinsel

03.December.2014

I tried to read through and make sure this wasn’t mentioned, I apologize if it already was – I used to house sit at Christmas-time for a family with two cats. The owner would have me peel an orange every other day and put the peels around the bottom branches (in the tree) and the cats didn’t like the smell and would stay away from the tree. I would leave some of the older peels on and remove the really dried out ones.

I told my friend about it once and she said that she would do a far prettier thing – she would have the kids decorate oranges with cloves and then string the whole thing up (with pretty ribbon like a fancy glass ornament) around the inner branches (sturdier for the heavier load) – which also seemed to work for her, but she had an older cat who never seemed interested in the tree anyway so I can’t verify this was as effective.

Maybe cuties would work in a similar fashion?

On the flip side, my mother-in-law’s cats have never been interested in her tree – maybe your cat won’t be?

Hope that helps. Happy Holidays :)

03.December.2014

“How do you keep cats out of Christmas trees?” Um, you don’t. We secure our tree to the wall with two anchor wires so that it can’t be knocked over. All ornamets are not just hung on hooks, but wired to the tree. And every morning, sometimes even twice each day, we do tree repair so that we aren’t left with a tree surrounded by a pile of detritus that has been knocked off said tree.

Also, do not be surprised if you happen to pour yourself a cup of coffee at 7 am and wander over to your beautiful tree to admire it, only to unexpectedly find yourself eye-to-eye with a cat that has been happily resting in ‘his’ new forest exhibit. It will come as quite a shock. Cats are wicked good at camouflage. Try not to spill your coffee.

03.December.2014

The tree water is incredibly toxic to pets due to the heavy pesticides they use. Try to not let her drink it!

03.December.2014

One more tip about Christmas and pets – I know you don’t use curly ribbon, but gifts you may receive might have it. Our cat LOVES curly ribbon and gobbles it up. We have to be careful year round with any kind of party. Like others have mentioned, string, ribbon and tinsel can get caught up in their intestinal track and lead to some very bad things. We’ve actually had to induce vomiting in order to prevent the ribbon from getting too far into his system. Silly kitties!

03.December.2014

Hey! Since you mentioned it, can you write an update on life with Cheetah now that she’s been with you? She’s so much bigger now. :)

Also, I love good pet stories. <3

03.December.2014

My best tip for a Christmas tree with a kitten is try not to care too much, and vacuum often! We have a 9 months old kitten and a 16 month old toddler. We put lights on the tree, but haven’t even attempted to put ornaments on it. We probably won’t. The kitten messes up the tree skirt every day and there are already tons of needles all over my floor. I don’t care though. I still like the tree, and it still smells nice. I set my expectations really low, so I’m just happy that the tree hasn’t come crashing down yet. If your kitty still has claws, be prepared for her to attempt climbing the tree. Buying a pricklier breed of tree may help with this.

03.December.2014

We came home one Christmas eve to find our two cats curled up asleep and purring on the tree skirt, completely surrounded by broken glass balls. That is how I learned to use only unbreakable balls on the lower part of the tree. Also, keep the lights at the inside of the tree, not on the outer branches and ditto garlanding. Our cats only climbed up/ knocked over the tree over but we bought a larger, heavier tree holder and that seemed to do it.

Besides that, just keep your sense of humor. It’s rather lovely to have a tree and a kitten in the same place and watch what happens. Coming home finding the cats had broken all those balls is a happy memory for the whole family.

03.December.2014

That should read – “Our cats only climbed up/knocked over the tree once…”

I need an editor.

03.December.2014

Just go slow and see how she reacts, then adjust your expectations, kind of like you already do with your kids.

Set up the tree and just leave it for a few days to see how she reacts. We anchor ours to the wall with a permanent heavy duty anchor about about 3/4 of the way up the tree (they hide behind frames the rest of the year). Then the lights and wide ribbon, but leave the lights unplugged for a few days, see if she’s a cord chewer (ours only chews next to the outlet, so a plastic cord protector from amazon.com fixes that). Then plug in the lights and hang round one of ornaments, the unprecious and unbreakable ones. You get the idea.

One of the best things you can do is to try to make similar but more inviting perches for her around the room. Similar height, some sort of camouflage, comfy bedding, maybe some dangly toy(s) that are okay for playing. That way, when you tell her “no” about the tree, you have somewhere you can tell her “yes” about that fills some of the same desires (treats make everything even awesomer). It doesn’t work 100% in our house, but well enough that I haven’t had any cat related ornament breakage in 5 years (knock on wood).

03.December.2014

We also recently adopted a kitten. So far he hasn’t messed with the tree too much. I have only put the lights and the non-breakable ornaments on the tree. If it continues to go well I will add the rest of the ornaments in a couple days.

03.December.2014

We keep a spray bottle handy when our cat messes with the tree and she pretty much leaves it alone. I do catch her napping under the tree though which is fine. ;) I would love to see how your lighted paper stars look at night from outside. I may just have to copy your idea!

03.December.2014

I spoke with the guy at my local nursery who said that Blue Spruce is the only tree that cats HATE! The needles are a bit more stiff so they will go near it one time- dislike it- and leave it alone and let me tell you it worked!

03.December.2014

Get a $1 spray bottle from the Dollar Store and spray your kitty lightly when they go to eat/play in the tree. Cats pretty much hate water and she’ll learn to stay away. Also, I would keep breakable ornaments that you care about at the top of the tree where she can’t reach and as stated before, no tinsel (or not in areas she can reach it). Cats eat it and it shows up in their poop. Yuck!

I’m so excited to check out this sale!! Merry Christmas!!

03.December.2014

No shiny tinsel hanging!! They love to catch it and eat it. :O(

03.December.2014

My friend says the only thing that keeps her cat out of the tree is hanging white winter fir “scentsicles” hung on the inside of the tree. The smell I sun appealing to cats.

03.December.2014

My mother-in-law has had no problems with live trees and cats (and she has had LOTS of cats, rambunctious and not. She ties her ornaments on (use ribbon bows instead of hooks) and puts only non-breakable ornaments on the bottom 1/5-ish of the tree, and tinsel only goes farther up.

03.December.2014

Dried orange slices! As a few readers have mentioned, most cats hate citrus oil – slice some oranges and lemons thinly (best if you have a mandoline slicer) and pop them on a cookie sheet in the oven (on the lowest temperature it will go) for a few hours until they’re dry (normally takes an afternoon – 6 hours or so?) – hang them with the regular wire ornament hangers you can get in boxes of 250 from target – if you hang them infront of the tree lights, they look like stained glass. Also unbreakable! One of our cats avoids them/the tree, one of them doesnt. If they don’t work, you’re only out $3 of oranges and 10 minutes of slicing time!

03.December.2014

I’m going for the cat ‘shock’ collar with the puc next to the tree. Gives a few warning beeps and then a little static shock. There’s no other way to stop our monster kitty.

04.December.2014

I LOVE the simplicity of these photos. I’m not a huge fan of Christmas decorating and I like that the point was made, without it being overkill.
Merry Christmas!
~Kylie

04.December.2014

Not sure how to keep the cats out. I had an artificial tree in the corner near the window and he used to enter the tree from the sofa which was near the tree. He would climb up near the top and then sit there and look out the window. If I caught him in the tree he would cock his head and look at me real cute. I sent a Christmas card one year with him peeking out. Overall, it was just too cute, He was lots of fun. This year the tree will be in front of the window but not near the sofaoso we’ll see.

04.December.2014

I would love to!

04.December.2014

Reminds me of the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

04.December.2014

Haha!

04.December.2014

Try hanging citrus scented sachets around the bottom of the tree – cats tend not to like the smell. It could be a neat homemade decoration and useful at the same time! Also, cats tend not to like sharper needles on the tree. Finally, make sure your cat can’t leap from the furniture onto the tree.

04.December.2014

Don’t let your kitty drink the Christmas tree water. Tree water can contain toxins (pesticides, etc.) that are harmful to pets. I just wrap my tree skirt tightly around the base of the tree (over the stand) and that does the trick.

04.December.2014

In the past when our kitty Frank would climb the tree we would shoot rubberbands at him. We have a rubberband gun and when it would click he would run. Last year we didn’t even have to load the gun we would just make the gun click and he would avoid the tree. This year Frank doesn’t even look at the tree.

04.December.2014

I’m loving that black and white “X” pillow on your sofa! Where is it from? Love your style!

04.December.2014

i just don’t get the Joss and Main thing! They’re stuff is soooo overpriced, and you can only return for store credit?!

05.December.2014

It’s the xbase pillow from CB2!

05.December.2014

I have three cats, two of which have habits of getting into lots of things. My husband was terrified they would try to climb the tree and we would come home to everything on the floor. That has never happened.

Tips for making sure your tree is as cat-safe as possible: Put non-breakable ornaments on the lower 18-24″ of the tree. My cats like to bat at the sparkly ornaments but tend to leave the other stuff alone. Anything with yarn/thread/string gets hung higher up because my cats have a history of chewing on those sorts of things. Absolutely NO TINSEL. Animals will chew on it and it can cause intestinal blockages that are deadly. (Same thing with plastic grass in Easter baskets – paper grass is the only pet-safe option.) Make sure your tree stand is appropriate for the size of your tree and will be super-stable.

The last, important thing – cover up the water in the tree stand. Cats always seem to love to drink tree-water. It won’t really be harmful to them or anything (maybe they will just smell piney-fresh?) but I just have a tree skirt that goes over the stand and velcros around the base of the tree trunk to cover up the water, but allow easy access for watering.

One question – does Cheetah gets up on the shelves in your living room? My cats seem to get everywhere but some very shallow, high shelves in my living room. All of my breakable knick-knacks get relegated there.

05.December.2014

I love your decorations! If you love glowing stars, you might like these. They’re really popular around here because the Moravians settled close by. They make tree-toppers too! We finally got one this year and it’s so beautiful lit up at night!

http://www.amazon.com/Illuminated-Holiday-Christmas-Light-Decoration/dp/B000YT1UN8#customerReviews

http://www.amazon.com/Moravian-Star-MORAVIAN-STAR/dp/B002DYUP38

05.December.2014

I almost bought one of those! However, I needed something less 3D for the window. They would make great tree toppers!

05.December.2014

She jumped up on one shelf in the living room a few days after we brought her home. But since I got her the ugly cat stand thing she hasn’t tried it again. I think it helps that she has other owner-approved places to climb.