Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum!

Last year's fiasco: Emmie began spiral-vomiting every time she ate or drank something, requiring a frantic visit to the vet. After a couple hundred bucks worth of x-rays and a hydration pack inserted in her shoulder, we found out she'd likely have to have surgery to have a 1" section of plastic-and-metal tree removed from her digestive tract. It would have cost her a lot of trauma a month after being spayed, and about $1500 from her people. The vet gave us a day, and thank goodness she "passed" it the next morning. Not a pleasant task looking for it, as you can well imagine.
We didn't want to relive any part of that experience, so this year, we're ditching the plastic tree and getting a real one. The thought? That the risk would be a lot smaller, knowing that we now have two cats in the household this Christmas, who both love love love to check out anything and everything with their lips and teeth.
So, I stopped at Ricky's Flower Market and picked up a small potted spruce tree that Randy and I can decorate when he comes home from his business trip this week. There's not much room for a big tree, and I also figured we could give it to someone to plant next year if they want it.
I brought it home and immediately the beasties noticed something new on the table in the living room.

Note Emmie's open mouth

Hm...is that FERTILIZER in that there dirt?!

Oooh, yummy...dead leaves!

Why does this thing keep poking my nose when I try to bite it?

So, for now, the tree is living on the television.