Make Christmas trees festive, but still safe for pets

From Dec. 9, 2014:

My wife and I were just watching TV and saw these wonderful ads for Christmas tree ornaments, and we had this question: How do people keep their pets from destroying the ornaments or food on the tree?

I had to go out this past weekend for enterprises that required wearing pants, and I noticed in my travels that many of you are violating the Valley 101 Christmas decorations rule — no decorations before Dec. 13, my older sweet patootie’s birthday. Let’s be more careful in the future, people.

Now, I am all in favor of Christmas and all in favor of pets, mostly, but the two are not a good mix.

For starters, holly and mistletoe are highly toxic to dogs and cats.

Christmas trees, either real or fake, aren’t so great for little Puff or Rover, either. Fir needles can be mildly toxic.

Plastic needles from fake trees can be toxic and can cause intestinal blockage.

You need to hang your ornaments out of reach from your inquisitive pets and make sure they don’t chew on the lights’ electrical cords.

Last, a lot of people put aspirin or other stuff in the water bowls on fresh trees, and a lot of pets will drink it. That’s not good for them.

Jeez, this makes Christmas trees sound like death traps, doesn’t it?

They don’t have to be, but you do need to keep an eye on things.

So, put up your tree and make merry and wassail and sing carols and so on and so forth.

As you do all of that, don’t forget Clay’s annual plea to help end gooberism, wherein people know others need help, have the wherewithal to do so, but don’t. For Clay, the best antidote was The Republic’s Season for Sharing.

To donate in his memory: Fill out the form at sharing.azcentral.com or go to facebook.com/seasonforsharing. Text “SHARING” to 91-999 and click on the link in the reply. Or clip the coupon on Page 4A and mail it to the address shown. Make sure to mention “goobers.”