I watched our neighbor’s cat for about eight days starting the Tuesday before last. She had planned to go to Africa for an extended period, but that trip was delayed, however, she did decide to go out west and asked me to watch her cat, who is also named Frankie but is female.

Since Frankie is an indoor/outdoor cat, I suggested getting a cat door. In previous attempts at catsitting, I had trouble getting Frankie to come back inside the house so I was forced to put food outside, which drew ants.

My neighbor thought that was a good idea and bought a cat door which her son installed for her. Franke, with much hesitation and help, went out the cat door a couple of times but not in. Then she got her paw stuck in the door. It was lucky Frankie wasn’t alone when that happened.

The door my neighbor bought can be seen here. It has a hard plastic door. Fortunately, she was home when it happened and freed Frankie from the door. I went over to her house and discovered what probably happened. I pushed the door open with my finger while resting my finger along the bottom edge. Once my finger was out far enough and the hard plastic door rested on top of my finger, I pulled it back, but the door then pressed hard against my finger and kept me from extracting it.

I called the company and spoke with a friendly person who seemed surprised and sympathetic. I believe they sent a different style door out but I’m not sure if my neighbor used that one or bought a different one. In any case, what she has now has a flexible door. It was just in time, too. Frankie barely had enough time to get used to it.

When I started catsitting, I set a camera up near the door to monitor her progress. For the entire week, Frankie would leave the house through the door, although hesitantly, and then wait near the door for me to let her in when I showed up the next morning.

I don’t know why she had trouble going into the house, but I was just happy she now trusted me enough to let her in.

She would then spend all day inside, sometimes on a dining room chair but mostly on Mama’s bed. If I returned to pick up her wet food bowl and found it uneaten, I would give her a Delectable which my wife calls a squeezy tube.

I often sat in the living room for a bit so she would have company if she wanted it but she only sat close to me once.

All and all the cat door and Frankie’s more trusting attitude toward me made it a pretty easy job and I look forward to the next time.

Here is Frankie the other day having a peaceful nap on the catio.

Here is a photo of Floki and Chris taken on this day in 2018. I believe that is my gym bag Chris is lying on.

Here is a post from January 2017. With the heat we are experiencing now, it’s hard to remember what a cold day feels like.

Here is Frankie on a recent walk who decided to take a break from walking and nap instead.

This is just a quick post to say that I forgot to mention in my fourth of July post that it was also Floki’s tenth gotcha day.

Here is the first photo we have of him taken before we adopted him.

Here is Chris saying hello to him when we brought him home.

Here is a recent photo of Floki with Frankie.

Hopefully there will be many more gotcha days and I won’t forget them.

We just wanted to pause and wish The United States of America a very happy 250th birthday.

Frankie never misses an opportunity to stop and smell the flowers.

Here is Chris and Floki back on January 6, 2017.