Ever since the boys moved in, we’ve not been able to put up Christmas decorations.
In fact, all of my most precious home décor is stored away in cat-proof areas of our home.
Anyway, I couldn’t face Year Three of no Christmas spirit in the house so I decided to spend a little of our Christmas budget on an inexpensive tree and trimmings. My hope was the boys would learn to leave the tree alone and, in the process of learning, would only do damage to something that didn’t come with too dear a price tag.
I was moderately successful. No one climbed the tree or chewed the lights. However, the ribbon was unwound from the base levels of the tree and a frightening amount of baubles were plucked from the tree and batted around the floor.
Thank heavens for shatterproof ornaments.
Where we really failed, though, was with presents.
Jasper loved to grab bows and run like a thief in the night – bow in mouth, belly low to the ground. Oliver delighted in hooking a single claw in wrapping paper and pulling, resulting in a satisfactory ripping sound every time. It was equally fun to gnaw tissue paper in gift bags, leaving a soggy mess all around the living room.
Does anyone have any suggestions for lesson revisions before our 2019 Christmas present efforts?
There is something called Scat(sp?) that is a motion detector equipped can of compressed air. You can set it where you want to scare the cats off and when they approach, it sets off a loud hissing noise that makes them run off. Worked like a charm with Buster.