plants

I came across a list of plants that are toxic to cats.  While this post is not specific to being green, I wanted to share this information as it may help keep your kitty safe.  I’d recommend scanning through the list as many of the plants are commonly found in the home.

Even if you’re very careful about keeping your cat away from the plants, unforseen circumstances  can put your cat in harm’s way.  We kept our plants in the bedroom and always kept the door closed.  It was the one room that Furball didn’t have access to.

The first time Furball had full access to eat the plants, I was selling my condo.  The real estate agent left all of the doors open (despite instructions) and this gave Furball access to the plants in the bedroom.  Fortunately, none of the plants were super-toxic, but I didn’t even know to check for this.

In the second incident, we were moving and the landlady was showing tenants around.  She left the bedroom door open, which gave Furball access to the plants.  Once again, we were lucky.

In the third incident, the maintenance guys for our apartment locked the cat in one of the bedrooms that had peace lilies in it.  I was out of town and my husband was at work.  When my husband got home, he couldn’t find the cat and finally discovered the cat behind the closed bedroom door.

We knew it wasn’t good for the cat to eat plants, but we didn’t realize that the plants he ate were considered toxic.  My husband called me to tell me about the incident.  My intuition caused me to ask if any of the plants were poisonous.  We had gotten some new plants since the last home and it turned out that they were toxic.  A late night trip to the vet ensued.  Fortunately, the plants he did eat, while slightly toxic, were not the worst ones.  Furball was none the worse for wear.

We got rid of the plants right away after that.  I hope by sharing these stories with you that you’ll take a look at this list and the plants around your home.  If anything is on the risk list, just give the plant away on Freecycle.

Here’s the link to the ASPCA’s toxic and non-toxic plant list for cats.