It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ... maybe

The first picture of Christmas

I am usually one of those people who hauls the 15 boxes of Christmas decorations out of the garage bright and early the morning after Thanksgiving and begins decking the halls. But this year I am procrastinating because of our new family member, Cody Kitten. We've never been big pet owners. Even though we live in a rural area and Tommy could easily bring home any kind of feed we needed, we have had very few pets in our family. But we made a promise to Ter about getting a cat for his birthday and we now have a four footed feline under our roof.

I have been doing some major internet surfing looking for "sure-fire" remedies to keep the kitty out of the Christmas tree. One of my favorite comments on a message board was made by someone who put it in perspective: "Silly humans! You bring a huge scratching post inside the house and then you hang shiny toys on it and expect me to ignore it?"

Some of the ideas that seem somewhat sane (believe me, there were a great many that were way over on the crazy meter) were the following:

1. Use a strong citrus smell, preferrably orange scent. Evidently cats don't like citrus (who knew?)

2. Place your tree on one of those clear office chair mats with the nubby side up. Kittens don't like to walk on them.

3. Sprinkle white salt all over the ground under the tree (keep tissues handy for your sneezing family)

4. Secure the tree with twine to the wall or a large piece of furniture (I'm not sure how this saves your ornaments though)

5. Board the cat during December (My favorite but by far the most expensive)

Hmmm, to choose, to choose! I'll let you know how it goes. And if you have any better ideas, by all means share. In the meantime, I will be making wreaths of orange slices.