christmas tree

If you find out, let me know! As a cat person, you must have already figured out that part of their charm is that they have minds of their own; it's very difficult to train a cat. Mine won't go near the counters or tables when I'm around, because he knows that I'll spray him with the water bottle. But I know he goes up there when I'm gone, because I'll find things knocked to the floor. As for the Christmas tree, good luck. He'll just wait until you're asleep and then go in and open the presents and redecorate for you... It's a daily battle until the tree comes down, I'm afraid. And the cat always wins, in my experience.

I was going to suggest the water bottle spraying thing.. but you have to be able to catch them in the act and OFTEN. Not easy to do with sneaky little kitties! And they can not know that it is you spraying them. But it is a harmless way of teaching them. My mother has quite a few cats in her house as well as a bunch of houseplants and the cats all just LOVE to dig in the pots and curl up to sleep. I told her about the water spraying thing (and her plants benefit as well). The cats seem to find other places to nap now. It been about 5 months since she started doing it so I think they are slowly getting the idea that "something" is happening to them when they touch the plants. I had the same sort of problem with keeping 1 of my dogs out of the garbage at night. She always waits until the lights are out and you could be standing in the same room still. She just walks by and puts head in trashcan. We tried just about everything... until I remembered the little mouse trap... hehe We set the mousetrap up with just a dab of peanut butter on it and set it on top of the garbage.. and SNAP! when it went off it clipped to the end of her tongue... she hasn't been in the trash since! Are dogs smarter than cats because they learn after just one time? I don't know. I think the cats may be smarter because they just know how to get away with it better! LOL

We have five cats. My answer, you can't. Best you can do is try. We use the water bottle method also.