Peaceful Co-existence Between Your Pets and Your House Plants
Have you missed something from the list? Are you wondering where the poinsettias are? Well, they aren't here because they aren't poisonous - another of those myths that will not die. Several years ago a study proved that a typical child would have to consume several hundred of the colored bracts before there was any toxic effect. The same is true for cats and dogs. To quote the Royal Horticultural Society in England on the subject of hazardous plants: "If it isn't a known food, don't eat it." And that goes for pets too.
If you have plants that you know or suspect are toxic to your pets, the next thing is to pet-proof them. This can tax your ingenuity, because they seem to know what you don't want them to do and have almost as much curiosity as a child who has been forbidden something. As with children (and all the rest of us too!), preventing the formation of a habit is much easier than breaking one.
Your plants will need all the light you can give them, but pets like to look out windows too and even sit in them and "idle minds are the devil's workshop" as I was often told as a child. To prevent idle pets from absently chewing on plants just because they are there (they need to be there for the light, remember!), make the pet a place to sit or just look out that is not near the plants. Arrange the pots and other decorative items where the plants are in such ways that they do not leave comfortable sitting or napping spots close to the plants. Think of it as the same as putting sharp gravel on a roof to prevent the pigeons from landing there. Make the best sitting and napping spots where their "lookout" is. A final suggestion: give them their own potted plant - something that won't hurt them and will even be good for them.
Contrary to popular belief, cats and dogs aren't total meat eaters. They both often chew on grasses and other plant materials to provide themselves with the roughage that their bodies don't get from their natural diet.
A nice gift for your kitty or for a friend who has a kitty is a pot of grass. Oat seed from a farm store or the sprouting section of your health food store is the most often recommended "grass"
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