Thought I would ask any cat people out there if you have any experience or advice, seeing as how there was a cat thread on here recently.
This year, for the first (and possibly the only time), we suspended our green credentials and went for a real Christmas tree. I had never had one and wanted to do it just this once - next year it's back to good old environmentally friendly plastic. So we get the tree, decorated it and it looks gorgeous. I almost got teary looking at it as it's the tree I always wanted.
Cattipuss likes it as well. The only place where it fits happens to be the same corner as her "mummy" (dd1's big hairy tabby beanbag that she sleeps on). We thought she wouldn't like the tree, especially as we had to move her beanbag over a bit, but she loves it so much that she occasionally comes off the beanbag to sleep in the shade of its branches. We have had to cover the water holder thingie to stop her drinking out of it, but apart from that we didn't have the expected problems with climbing and chewing.
However, although she seems fine in herself, now her third eyelids on both eyes have started to move across. I spoke to the vet and, as she doesn't seem otherwise ill, he suspects that she is allergic to our Christmas tree.
So we moved her beanbag, expecting this to solve the problem. But it seems that she now loves the tree more than her beanbag, because she stayed put.
There is nowhere else in the room that our tree would go. I don't want to lock the cat out of the house, and as the area is open plan there's no way to keep her out of the living room. I don't want to get rid of my beautiful Christmas tree. I also don't want my cat to be ill.
Has anyone ever previously encountered a cat who is allergic to Christmas trees? Of course, it might not even be that but I can't think how we might keep her away from the thing long enough to find out. Help...?
PS she is also f*rting like a buffalo but I'm not sure if that might be linked... has never done it before, though!