Cat peeing on potted Xmas tree

[WildGeece]

Last Christmas, when I brought in my potted Christmas tree, it really smelled strongly of urine. We'd kept it at the front of the house since the Xmas before & had seen some of the neighbourhood cats in our front garden near the tree & suspected them... smell faded but was still noticeable up close (we put up with it as we went away for most of the hols, tree was decorated by the time we noticed it & energy required to do something about it was low... 🤷‍♀️) Then Xmas ended, tree went back outside & I forgot about it.

Cut to today, when I witnessed one of said cats strolling into our front garden, head straight to our potted Xmas tree & proceed to pee deliberately & directly on it.

Can anyone explain why? And how can I stop this?

unneutered male cats mark their territory by spraying urine. The Tom cats in your area have been spraying it while it’s been outside for months. You can’t really stop them, unfortunately. It’s also a very pungent smell that’s extremely difficult to remove so it will be very smelly if you bring it in for next Christmas.

You can put "spikes" - little kebab sticks - all around the plant so that there's nowhere safe and comfy for the cats to leap to. Worked for my small pot plant.

@UnderTheCover The cat didn't climb onto it - sprayed it from afar. But will think about an alternative.

@Pandimoanymum Any ideas why the Xmas tree is being specifically targeted?

Probably being targeted cos they can smell other cat's so trying to override the smells by adding their own

As previous poster said, they can probably smell other cats' spray on it, so they then spray it with their own scent to 'reclaim' it as theirs.
Cats spraying are a bloody nuisance, they like to do it up against vertical things like furniture, plant pots and yes, little trees. Years ago our neighbours cat used to come into our house and spray against the oven door and the VCR recorder in the living room, which was raised off the floor on a little stand under the tv!

They are scent marking. The tree just happens to be in the ideal location for them to announce their territorial boundary. We once had a cat that perpetually did that to a conifer in our back garden.

Is there anywhere else you can keep the tree, and maybe put something else in that spot instead?

Sorry, just catching up now, have been away. Thanks for the reply.

I'll move the tree & hope the cat doesn't start targeting the other planters (non moveable) that we have there.