Sunday I decided to take Frankie for a walk. He loves to be outside but since he is an adventurer, I have to bring him out on a leash and harness. That means he doesn’t go out much because I am either too busy, too tired, it’s too hot outside, or I am just plain lazy. These are the same reasons I don’t have a dog.
Frankie likes to travel in a straight line down the sidewalk, like he knows what it is for, pausing occasionally to smell stuff and then moving on.
I let him lead and keep hoping he will eventually start travelling back toward home but he rarely does. I usually have to pick him up and carry him home. I tried to pick him up on this day but he would have none of it and changed direction on his own and headed home.
I dug into the archives again for this week’s photo. This is from almost ten years ago. It was taken on May 28, 2013. Chris used to spend time with Rose in the morning helping her with her makeup.
I’m sure almost everyone reading this understands the difficulties of making the bed with cats around. In my house, it is usually Chris who wants to be covered with a sheet or blanket, but the other day Frankie ended up under the sheet. When Puck saw him under the sheet he got all frisky and started attacking Frankie.
It’s funny to watch those two sometimes. Often we will see Frankie chase Puck through the house and a few seconds later we will see Puck chasing Frankie. It usually seems friendly but there are also many times when someone loses a big chunk of fur.
I don’t have any good new photos this week so I thought I would share one from this day in history. Technically, it was this day yesterday in history but who’s counting. Here is Chris and Puck on May 18, 2015.
I know this photo has some technical flaws but I think it’s cute.
Today we celebrate Chris turning fourteen. As I mentioned before, we don’t know his actual birthday but we celebrate today because Chris was about six months old when we adopted him on November 14, 2009.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to look back at his life in pictures.
October 3, 2009. Chris at adoption center with Rose. Almost six weeks before adoption.November 14, 2009. First photo of Chris at home.November 25, 2009. Alex, Abbey, and Tigger surround Chris.February 13, 2010. Chris sees first snow.April 4, 2010. Chris takes over baby seat.April 28, 2010. Abbey scolds Chris in front of Tigger.June 8, 2011. Mocking bird does not like ChrisJune 9, 2011. Mocking Bird still does not like Chris.June 16, 2012. Chris catches one of many lizards.July 1, 2012. Chris does not understand danger.
December 28, 2012. Chris the acrobat.
November 15, 2013. Chris working on his tan.February 1, 2014. Chris likes his grass.February 4, 2014. Chris is a lover and a fighter. Here he is with Puck.April 27, 2014. It’s no fun being bad alone. Here he teaches Frankie his skills.March 21, 2015. Here is Chris showing Frankie how to catch a lizard.July 18, 2016. Chris becomes a father figure to Floki.November 27, 2016. Chris still knows how to get into things.February 10, 2017. Still a climber.February 8, 2018. Chris is a lover and a biter.July 12, 2018. There’s no hiding the catnip from Chris.February 7, 2019. Chris is now fully grown.August 11, 2020. Chris’s obsession with kibble.March 17, 2021. Chris loves Floki.November 14, 2022. . . . and this bed was too small.April 9, 2023. Chris loves Frankie and Floki.
I hope you enjoyed our little trip down memory lane.
Recently, Frankie jumped up on a low section of a large tree in pursuit of a squirrel. When he realized the squirrel escaped, he just sat there and let me take his picture.
After Frankie’s bad behavior on Saturday. I decided I was not going to take him outside on Sunday. He bugged me most of the day. Every time I got up he pleaded with me to take him out, but I held firm.
Later that afternoon, Chris sat at the door and asked me to let him out. Since Chris didn’t scratch my face yesterday I opened the door and let him out. Frankie was in the other room and didn’t see me do it.
It didn’t take him long to figure it out. Before long he was in the window very upset that Chris was outside and he was inside.
I felt bad for him but he needs time to think about how he can improve his behavior, which I am sure is exactly what he did.
I took Frankie out for a walk Saturday morning. Since I started a new job on Thursday I am not able to take him out every day, and he was really hounding me to go outside.
After about fifteen minutes we came upon one of the same cats that we saw recently with pretty much the same result.
After this incident, the other cat was hiding so I thought it best to pick Frankie up and move him away from the area. As I was carrying him I passed a neighbor who commented on Frankie’s cuteness. I told her I was carrying him because of aother cat.
She said, “Oh, that’s Sampson.” I could be wrong about the name but it was the name of an ancient warrior. So now I know the other cat is male. What surprises me is that Frankie would be the aggressor since we were on the other cat’s home turf.
I put Frankie down and we wondered for another fifteen minutes or so. My wife and I were heading out soon so I needed to get Frankie home. I was willing to let him walk home but he was going in the wrong direction and my efforts to turn him around failed.
The only thing left to do was pick him up and carry him home. So I picked him up and started walking. Frankie was upset and started hissing. I said, “Frankie, don’t hiss at me!”
“Hssssssssssss,” was his response.
I don’t know what made me think kissing him on the top of the head would calm him down. Instead, he twisted and launched both sets of claws into my face.
I dropped him to the ground and yelled at him. I won’t repeat my words here. I then picked him up and continued home. I could feel blood flowing down both sides of my face. He got me next to my right eye and just above my mouth on the left side. I worried that they might be deep scratches that would scar my face.
When I got home my wife was shocked to see my bloody face. I told her what happened and she said, “That’s it! Frankie is not going outside anymore.”
I then wiped the blood off my face and was relieved to see that both wounds were more like punctures instead of scratches.
I don’t think I will stop taking Frankie outside but I do think he could use a time out right now.
It is pretty cool that our cats get along as good as they do. This photo was from Wednesday evening but as I write this on Thursday evening they are all grouped together on the bed in a similar way.