Stops Along the Way


Frankie’s walks used to be quite random, but they have settled into a route that he doesn’t always follow but lately his path has been pretty consistent. I should also not that when I first started walking him at our current home, we would walk well beyond the boundaries of the map below but now we usually stay inside the borders.

We leave our house from the front door at the upper left and walk counterclockwise until we return through the back door.

Frankie stops at certain places which I have numbered. Of course, he stops at other places too but these are consistent stops.

  1. The first stop is at the side of a house where many flowers are growing. Frankie follows the advice that says you have to stop and smell the flowers. Sometimes you even have to lay down next to them.

2. Next is the house where Boots lives. Boots is a black cat who sometimes goes outside but mostly we see him looking out the window. Frankie ignores him but Rose and I like to talk to him as we go by. Sometimes the window is open, like it was this morning. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of Boots.

3. The next house has many plants in pots along the driveway. Frankie likes to give them a good sniff along with a few face rubs.

4. We then travel to a good place to lie down. Maybe when the leaves are gone, we will skip that stop.

5. Next is that nice patch of un-mowed patch of grass I wrote about recently.

6. We then come to a telephone pole Frankie likes to rub his face on. I don’t know if it’s the pole or the safety marker he likes but there are two more poles on the street that he ignores and one of them has the same marker.

7. Finally, we come to an area with stones and rocks which looks uncomfortable to me but not to Frankie.

What do you think of our morning routine?

Photo Friday: Frankie in the Weeds


The morning walk with Frankie used to be very random. Every day we went in a different direction but lately he has mostly followed a route. We walk around our little group of houses counterclockwise three quarters of the way. Then, instead of closing the loop, we continue through the grass to the next street, sometimes the second street, then we make the loop home.

One of Frankie’s favorite stops is the house on the end of the next street. There is a patch of grass that doesn’t get mowed, probably because it is inside an area that was once a flower bed, or something like that. In any case, Frankie likes to chew on the long grass.

Photo Friday: Boxed in


Here is Chris sixteen years ago on October 22, 2010.

I looked up Vaddio. They sell security cameras. I’m certain we didn’t buy a security camera back then, certainly not one that would come in a box that big, so I don’t know where the box came from. In any case, I cut a hole in it and made a fort for Chris.

I am writing this post on Thursday morning because I will be leaving for Virgina soon to visit my wife for a long weekend while she is in the middle of a two-week business trip. She rented an Airbnb for the weekend in a place called Monroe.

Photo Friday: Chris Meets Rose


I first met Chris while volunteering for a shelter called Sav-R-Cats in South Carolina. It was a Myrtle Beach organization, but the shelter itself was located in Surfside. I was asked to clean the cages at PetSmart in Myrtle Beach where they had cats on a rotating basis with other shelters. Chris was there and he introduced himself by climbing up my shirt, perching on my shoulders, and biting my ear.

I don’t remember how much time had passed but he was still at the shelter on October 3, 2009 when I invited Rose to come to the shelter to see him. He did not disappoint. This is the first photo I have of him.

Chris meets Rose

Here he is a minute later.

We did not adopt him that day. We had a vacation planned for the middle of October and after that Rose had a business trip planned. It was not a good time to adopt a cat.

At some point, I don’t remember if it was after this day or before, Chris was adopted and returned the next day because of his behavior. We eventually brought him home on November 14 and the rest is history.

In again, Out Again, Frankie


We don’t have a cat door that leads to our catio so, when the weather is too hot to leave the door open, I have to open it whenever a cat wants to come in or go out. Sometimes my wife opens it but mostly it’s my job. Frankie is extremely annoying when it comes to wanting to be on the other side of the door. He usually scratches on the door to get my attention but sometimes he just stares through the window.

When I let him in, he’ll wander into the kitchen to see if the food situation has changed and then a minute later, he is at the door wanting to go back out.

Sometimes we’ll repeat the in and out routine five times in five minutes. It is like he is testing my patience. Other times, though, he will nap on the catio, and we won’t see him for hours.