I never thought of a real tree of course i'd prolly kill it by forgetting to water it lol!
I've lived in this place for 7 years Hope and have had two live ones.
The first year, it died and became a sadder version of Charlie Browns tree.
The next one stayed nice until around mid December, then I feared lighting it up for fear it would light my house up.
I was trimming the trunk myself and apparently doing something wrong.
This year, who knows?
No matter what tree I have, Gretchen doesn't leave it alone.
When she was a puppy, she'd pee on the tree skirt, or tear it out from under and go running across the room with it, or play with the decorations I had on the bottom branches.
Now that she's older.. she just sits on the back of my legs as I trim the lower branches, then sniffs around it.