Keep kitty safe this holiday season with our 12 Tips For a Cat Safe Christmas Tree. The Christmas tree might as well be an early holiday gift to your cats. Kitty can’t resist the urge to sniff, cheek rub, claw—and scale the branches to reach the highest possible perch. Don’t blame your cat. It’s normal for cats to compete for the top spot (literally and figuratively) to secure their place in kitty society.
Youngsters won’t care about social standing, but high energy kitten play turns the holiday tree into a jungle gym. Tree encounters of the kitty kind not only risks breaking your heirloom ornaments, your furred family members can be injured by chewing or swallow dangerous items.
Rather than fight a losing battle to keep cats at bay, create a second cat-safe tree with these 12 tips, so the fur-kids can enjoy the holidays as much as you do.
1. Put yourself in your cat’s “paws.” Satisfy her desire to claw, lounge on branches, and trust that it won’t tip over under her assault. Match the tree size, sturdiness, base (perhaps add guy-wires for steadiness) to the activity level and number of cats.
2. Ditch the lights, and any “fake-snow” flocking that can be chewed or swallowed. Instead, decorate with cotton balls or pillow-stuffing fleece for that snowy look on branches or around the base. If you’ve chosen a real tree, water with plain water and no additives in case kitty decides to drink.
3. Strings and garland look great on the tree, but prove deadly inside a cat when swallowed. Dried flowers like baby’s breath look lovely and are nontoxic even if clueless kittens nibble.
4. To increase the fun factor, insert a few sprigs of dried catnip—but be prepared for the cats to dismantle the tree!
5. Catnip toys make great kitty tree decorations and won’t be destroyed during the feline assaults. Use “orphan” socks (singletons without a mate), fill with the ‘nip, and knot the open end.
6. Jingle bells (quarter size or larger) can’t be swallowed and offer movement and sound when hung from ribbon on a branch. Put one inside the sealed catnip sock for more jingly fun.
7. Furry toy mice come in bright colors—or go with a standard white theme—and can be placed in the branches for your mouse-aholic feline.
8. Craft stores offer inexpensive bags filled with soft pompoms in a variety of colors and sizes—even sparkly ones. Cats love to play with these. Pompoms are so cheap you can fill the branches with one color theme, or a rainbow approach.
9. Many cats adore feathers, but remember they can chew and swallow these. As long as supervised, a few feathers placed in the tree can be a fun accent as well. How about a bright feather boa instead of garland?
10. Small stuffed toys—kitty theme or otherwise—appeal to many cats. Place around the base of the tree. Feline puzzle toys filled with special treats also are fun.
11. Don’t forget the “cheap thrills.” Empty boxes, wads of holiday paper, and even paper shopping bags thrill cats. Remove bag handles so the cat won’t get hung around her neck.
12. Toss a few special kitty treats in the boxes or bags. The smellier the treat, the better cats like them.
Be prepared to re-decorate the tree after the cats have fun. But a “Cat-mas” tree not only answers your kitty’s Santa Paws prayers, it means she’ll be more likely to leave your formal tree and decorations alone. That promotes a merry Christmas for the whole family, furry and otherwise.
Stop by Wells Brothers to pick up a few cat or kitten toys to keep them preoccupied and away from your Christmas tree.
Source: Amy Shojai is a certified animal behavior consultant and the award winning author of 23 pet care books on aging cats and dogs, first aid, natural healing, pit bulls, including Complete Kitten Care.
Late deer season can be some of the best hunting. Frigid temperatures without proper clothing and equipment can keep even the most dedicated hunter at home. Tackle the cold, fill your tags and take the buck of your dreams this season!
4 Tips for staying warm in your deer stand:
Dress Properly
Take your time walking to the deer stand
Move
Bring a Heater
Take these tips with you on your next hunting trip to stay warm. Share your hunting pictures with us and come by for all your hunting needs! Good luck this season and stay warm!
With the weather turning cooler, make sure to provide a warm and dry place for outdoor pets and livestock. Wells Brothers has plenty of options for animal bedding at including Suncoast Pine Shavings, straw and coastal hay.
Suncoast Pine Shavings offers the highest quality horse bedding and pine shaving animal bedding around. Suncoast Pine Shavings offers only premium quality pure pine shavings for maximum cushioning and excellent absorbency. Sterile and essentially dust-free, our fresh, natural pine is ideal for your horse and easier on your budget than many alternative bedding materials. Fresh natural pine scent. ULTRA compressed bale Expands to a full 10 Cubic Feet!
Straw makes an ideal covering for garden and landscape plants to protect against frost and freezing temperatures. To cover with straw start at the ground with loose straw, and pile up beneath and around the sides of the plant tucking in around branches as you pile up. At the top shake straw over the last exposed leaves until they are well covered. The straw keeps leaves from frost exposure and it holds air inside keeping the temperature slightly higher than the air outside.
Wells Brothers has square bales of coastal hay available for your horses and livestock and bales of straw for your barn, garden or animal pins. Call us for availability.
Even though the growing season is over, winter lawn care is an important part of overall lawn health. In my youth, winter always meant no yard work. As an adult I learned I was wrong. Not all the way wrong but wrong enough. Lawns should be watered during long dry periods. This also applies to trees and shrubs. The good news is the National Weather Service is predicting above average rainfall this winter. They did the same thing last winter. They just missed it by 2 months.
Now is the time for the second application of the grassy weed pre-emergent that is called Dimension. This will get you through until the February/March time frame. Then it will be time to apply the spring application.
I talked about this a couple years ago but it needs repeating. Lawn equipment and ethanol-blended gas do not work and play together. Ethanol absorbs moisture at an astounding rate and there are no products (that I can find) that will stop this process. So, before you put the urban farm equipment away for the winter, run all the fuel from the tank and carburetor (this includes 2 strokes). Any leftover (non-mixed) fuel can be poured into the tank of your car. 2-stroke fuel should be disposed in a proper and legal manner. In Plano call (972)-769-4150 for disposal information.
Even with most of the federal funds exhausted, ethanol blended gas is here to stay. Most of the lawn equipment manufacturers have made the adjustment to ethanol gas. Though the machines last longer the fuel doesn’t. So how do we live with it? Don’t buy more than you can use in a month or two. Use fuel stabilizers like STA-BIL and Star Tron to help with life expectancy issues. There are replacement fuels on the market but they seem pricey. Alternatives to ethanol-blend gas are propane (did you know we sell propane?) and electric with both batteries and cords. I’m a big fan of the batteries in specific applications.
Wells Brothers Pet, Lawn & Garden Supply is pleased to offer monthly specials and coupons.
Click here for the coupons. Wells Bros_Aprl 2023 Coupon Specials_Flyer