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.

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.

This is a picture of Chris and Tigger take on the same day as last Friday’s post, October 23, 2011.

Chris was not a fan of napping alone, especially back then.

Here is a repost of a video of Chris from February 2017. He loved rolling around the driveway, probably because he was happy to be outside.

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.

Recently, my wife got something from Amazon and put the box down for the cats. Floki immediately went inside of it.

Over the next few days, we saw him in the box quite often, but we never keep boxes on the floor for very long. They are essentially a temporary treat. Usually, by the time we clean the house the box is gone. Plus, they can be a trip hazard. With that in mind, I didn’t think twice about taking it to put stuff into that I was taking to the thrift store as a donation.

Rose, after scolding me for taking Floki’s box, put another box down for him. Luckily, Amazon comes to our house every day. This time I put a pad in it for him to lie on.

Rose thinks the box is too small for him, but I think he likes the snugness. In any case, I think we need to keep this trip hazard for a while longer.

After posting about Frankie slowing down, I was curious what his age is when compared to humans. After asking AI, I learned he is almost eighty human years old. I then asked AI to make me a graphic with age comparisons from kittens on up and it gave me this.

This shows Frankie at 79 human years and Floki at 58.

I then asked for a dog comparison chart which turns out to be almost exactly the same. The main difference is that small dogs age slower than big dogs, so the chart is only accurate for average dogs.

So, how old are your pets in human years?

Here is Abbey almost fifteen years ago on October 23, 2011.

I think she discovered that the cable box was a warm place to nap.

Here is a classic picture of Tigger, Chris and Abbey taken in February, 2011.

I have a funny story about each of our cats but have no photos related to the stories so enjoy this old one.

First, my wife tracks her steps using her iWatch, or whatever it’s called (I don’t wear a watch, so I don’t know). When she hasn’t reached her goal by evening, she walks around the house until she does. She told me Floki was following her around the house the other day. Last night, she had some catching up to do again and called me into the living room. When I arived, I saw Floki following her as she did circles around the living room. This went on for some time, and it was funny to watch.

This morning, as we were out walking Frankie, it started to rain. We had made it to the last house on our block when it started drizzling. It was very minor and I was surprised to see Frankie head quickly in the other direction. At first, I thought he didn’t like the flock of big birds in front of us but then he started running and I realized it was the rain. It still wasn’t coming down hard, but it had increased from a drizzle to a light shower and Frankie didn’t like it. He ran all the way home with me running to catch up. And he did that right after I posted about him slowing down.

I can’t think of a TV show that is more entertaining than cats.

Some of you may remember my posts from a few years ago where I talked about how Frankie was a traveler and would lead me so far from home that I would be forced to pick him up and carry him home. He didn’t like that and would often hiss at me and try to jump down.

Fast forward a few years and he now sometimes walks three quarters of the way around the block, stops, looks up at me and meows. As near as I can figure, he wants me to carry him. When I do, he purrs instead of hisses.

Lately, Rose has been coming on our morning walks. She captured this photo of me carrying Frankie home the other day.

The change seems to have happened quickly. Six months ago, we would sometimes walk up to the main road, which is about equivalate to three blocks away, plus the walk back.

I don’t know how old Frankie is exactly, but we estimate he will be 16 next February. At some point he hast to slow down. Don’t get me wrong, Frankie is not ready for a nursing home yet, but he is also no longer the marathon walker he used to be. Some days are better than others. Yesterday we circled two blocks with no problem. This morning we did a lot of zig zagging, so I don’t know how far we walked, but Frankie came home on his own.

I will continue to walk with Frankie for as long as we both are able. If I have to carry him, I’ll gladly do that. I think the more we walk, the more we will be able to walk in the future. When the time comes when Frankie no longer has the desire to go outside, I will know we created a lot of good memories together.