Tree has been up since Friday night and it is still standing!! I figure if Dexter hasn't destroyed it yet, he wont. He is usually pretty good about immediately tearing apart anything and everything he sets his evil little sights on.
The first night we had it bare and kept it that way and they sniffed around it quite a bit. Dexter took a BIG chomp out of one of the low branches and he got sapped. Needless to say he hasn't tried to eat it again.
The next day I decorated with them held up in the bedroom and when I let them out they barely noticed anything changed about the tree. Bauer swatted at a couple of low hanging bulbs and knocked one out but I distracted them with treats and they have since left the ornaments alone.
I actually find the BIGGEST problem is that they fight and wrestle under the tree and this makes quite a mess by A) messing up the tree skirt, and B) shaking the tree and causing the needles to fall all over the floor surrounding the tree.
I have needed to vacuum quite a bit since we put it up.
For the next couple of days we are just going to lock them up in the bedroom/bathroom while we are at work so that we can supervise them around the tree, and so that I can make sure Dexter is genuinely done with his attempts to devour it
I figure after a while the novelty will probably wear off.
Happy Holidays!!