Heather Large: My Christmas tree test for a mountaineering moggie

Curious felines just can’t resist the twinkly lights, the sparkly tinsel and hanging baubles that look like fun toys.

My family’s first cat, Jasper, managed to get the top of the tree when he was just five-months-old. Thankfully, he got back down again unharmed and without causing it to topple it over.

But not every cat is that bothered by the temporary new festive feature in our living rooms.

The other two cats my family had, while I was growing up, just liked to play with any baubles we placed on the lower branches.

They were content with chasing these along the carpet and didn’t show any interest in any mountaineering activities.

So when my husband and I adopted our cat Oreo, we expected we would probably have to move everything out of reach of little paws. She loves to climb, when she was about five months old, she managed to reach, via a pedal bin and the kitchen door, a ceiling lampshade and crawl inside.

When we found her, the shade was swinging from left to right under her weight.

Although she had got herself up there, she clearly didn’t know how to get down – which I suppose is why so many cats have to be rescued from the tops of trees.

And what made it worse was that the more she wriggled about, the faster the lampshade moved.

In the end, she rustled up a bit of courage and jumped on to the top of the door and down onto my husband’s shoulder.

We thought, she probably won’t do that again.

But four months later, she repeated the trick, eventually finding her own way down.

So we suspected a Christmas tree would be the ultimate obstacle course and for the past two years, ours has been safely behind doors in the conservatory.

Anything breakable and that could be swiped by tiny paws was put on display in our bedroom – the only room Oreo isn’t allowed in unsupervised.

As a result, it’s been the most Christmassy room in the house, while the living room has looked rather bare and lacking festive spirit.

Last year, we did manage to add a few decorations. Although the garland we had hanging over the mantelpiece had to be moved higher up so it was out of Oreo’s reach after she pulled it off a few times. After being gifted an additional 5ft Christmas tree, we wondered whether it was risking putting up and adding a splash of colour to the room. We plan to still have the ‘main tree’ in the conservatory.

She could surprise us and show no interest, or we might have take it down again if it proves too tempting for her.

So we decided to set it up and leave it bare for a few days to see how our curious little moggie would react.

Oreo watched as we unpacked it and couldn’t wait to get inside the empty box.

We assembled the tree and she started sniffing the lower branches before walking off and jumping back into the box.

It’s true, what they say, no cat can resist an empty cardboard box.

Since then she’s paid absolutely no attention to the tree so we added a string of lights.

If Oreo is still not showing any interest, we might risk some non-breakable ornaments that don’t pose any risk to cats on the higher branches.

We’ve also made sure there is nothing close to the tree that she could use as a ladder.

Fortunately, it’s pretty light so wouldn’t do any damage if it was to fall but we want to make sure Oreo is safe.

I was reading some tips online on how to make it less tempting to felines and someone had suggested using orange peel or citrus spray in or around the tree to act as a deterrent.

This is because cats are said to hate the smell of citrus fruits.

But this wouldn’t work with Oreo, she loves the smell of oranges so it’s more likely to encourage her to investigate the tree further.

Fingers crossed our furry friend continues to be disinterested in our tree – and good luck to fellow cat owners.