Cats and Christmas Trees

I love youtube videos of cats mucking about in Christmas trees. These videos are so cute I could literally watch them for hours.

This year, while contemplating a Christmas gift for my kitty, I thought "I'll get her a tree!" I could image the hours of fun she would have in a fir tree propped up in my living room (I had already designed a sophisticated system of bungee cords attached to various hooks embedded in walls...) where Lily/Pumpernickel/Buttercup (it's all the same cat, she just keeps changing her name) would be able to spend hours lurking in the shadows ready to pounce on unsuspecting passersby as they walked past her lair.

As I began researching Christmas trees, I decided against getting her a Christmas tree as a gift. Namely because, as I recently found out, Christmas trees are sprayed to within an inch of their lives with pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.  I don't for a minute begrudge tree growers the means necessary to provide for their families, but I knew I would not willing subject Miss Kitty (easier to type than the above) to such an array of potentially hazardous chemicals.  On one level this makes me very sad because she is an indoor cat and I would LOVE to gift her the gift of some "wild time" lurking in the branches of a tree, even if it's in my living room.

Ultimately, however, I couldn't in all good consciousness subject my little furball to such hazardous conditions for a couple of days of fun.