Chris has never seemed to master the fine art of purring. Since we adopted him there was always something off about his purr. Occasionally, I will hear something from Chris that resembles a purr but mostly it sounds more like heavy breathing.
I don’t know. Maybe his purrer is broken. What do you think?
Since Floki is a Siamese cat, he has the trademark cross-eyed look. Here it seems that his left eye is looking at the camera while his right eye is checking something else out. I believe the condition is caused by a slight misalignment of the retinas so he really is focusing on just one thing.
I think it adds to his cuteness. What do you think?
One morning last week I noticed Chris had blood on his face which I assumed was a result of a fight with Frankie.
I know it was Frankie and not Floki because those two have been in a struggle for dominance since the day we adopted Frankie over four years ago.
I learned long ago that the ancestor of the domestic cat was the African Wildcat. The males of that species tend to be loners so there is no need for an alpha but domestic cats have evolved, or have been bread, to live in groups. I don’t recall reading about the hierarchy of domestic cats but there does seem to be alphas and betas. Chris is definitely an alpha. You may recall the video of Chris the day we adopted him. Even though we had four other cats, Chris just took over the house.
Before Chris, Tigger was our “alpha” but he wasn’t really an alpha. We called him “The Accidental Alpha” because he seemed to bumble into the job, kind of like Baby Huey. You can see him around 38 seconds into the video just lying there watching Chris. I don’t know where our other three cats were but nobody came out to challenge Chris.
The first cat we adopted after Chris was Puck. When we brought Puck home Chris was happy to see him but Tigger avoided the meet and greet.
Frankie’s arrival was different and it caught us by surprise. We assumed Chris would be happy to have a new cat in the house since Chris loves everyone and everyone loves Chris. Not so. We introduced Frankie, as usual, exactly the wrong way. We never had a problem before so we assumed we never would. Frankie didn’t take over like Chris did but I think that Chris and Frankie both sensed a threat in the other. Maybe one alpha can tell another alpha right away.
The problems continued for several weeks.
It took about a month before the two of them could get along even a little and to this day they are like frenemies.
Puck, on the other hand was a good example of a beta cat. Chris and Puck got along very well and never fought because Puck always let Chris have his way. Sometimes I would catch Chris holding Puck down by the scruff of his neck and Puck would let him do it. I even saw Chris dragging him across the floor a few times like that.
Chris does that to Floki now too. I assume it is a way of showing him who the boss is. Even though Floki is not after the alpha job, he still struggles against Chris more than Puck did. Considering how badly he struggles when we try to clip his nails, I am surprised Chris is able to hold him down at all.
I had to cut the video short because I felt like I should separate them.
What about you? Do you have an alpha? Do you have two alphas? How about a female alpha?
While looking for a photo for yesterday’s post, I came across a video of Chris from this day in 2010. It is not one of his best videos but it is nostalgic and does give a little glimpse into what Chris was like back then. There is also a cameo by our cat Alex.
I believe this is also the first HD video I have of Chris. What do you think?
I already did “This Day in Christory” and “This Day in Pucktory” so I feel obligated to do one for Frankie, even though the titles are getting progressively worse. I guess next it will be “This day in Floktory” although, after saying it in my head, I think I will call it something else.
Here is Frankie on March 22, 2014. We adopted him in February of that year and I forgot to do a Gotcha Day post for him so this will have to be the next best thing.
Chris wants to wish all our Northern Hemisphere readers a very happy first day of spring in the usual Chris way. He also wants to wish our readers to the south a very happy first day of fall.
I think we all know how much cats like fresh laundry. Even clothes that have been folded but not put away are fair game.
Since Chris had eight teeth pulled, I have been thinking about ways I could help keep our cats’ teeth clean. The vet says dry food is good for that which makes me question my choice of vets. I think dry food cleans a cat’s teeth as well as a cookie cleans a human’s teeth.
I could try to brush their teeth but that would cause trauma and be a nightmare beyond belief. Floki, especially, would be impossible considering we can’t even trim his nails.
Bones are natures teeth cleaner for cats but, even though I feed them raw cat food, I don’t give them bones. I’ve recently started including a few ground chicken wings with bones (the wingettes are all my food grinder can handle) but they need the entire bone to help their teeth. Chris barely eats his wet food the way it is, I can’t see him or any of our boys eating the entire chicken wing, although Frankie might attempt it.
I recently came across Solredo Silver Vine Chew Sticks that claim to clean cat’s teeth among other health benefits. On Amazon they are labeled as “Matatabi Cat Catnip Sticks.” I assume Matatabi is another word for Silver Vine but Catnip is probably wrong since they are Silver Vine sticks.
They arrived last week and I took three out of the resealable package and gave them to our boys with mixed results. They were interested at first but it didn’t last. Frankie even started playing with his Kitty Kick Styx. It seemed holding the sticks was much more effective after the initial interest subsided. Unfortunately, holding them is not realistic. Perhaps they should sell a device that holds them ten inches off the ground.
Has anyone tried these? What do you think?
I’m gonna let the cat out of the bag and tell you Whole Foods now has fresh feline.
Ours is very fresh.
It’s been a while since I have reblogged something for Throwback Thursday. This is a sort of reminder to me because I have been lazy and not taken the cats out too much these last few weeks.
I believe the concept of Earthing was introduced in a book called Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever! I have not yet read the book but I read several articles about the subject and watched a documentary called Grounded. As best as I understand it, when we are disconnected from the Earth, like we are in our homes or while wearing most shoes, we build up free radicals in our bodies that cause inflammation. That leads to a long list of other health problems. By taking our shoes off and touching the Earth for 30 to 60 minutes a day, we allow a free exchange of electrons that can neutralize these free radicals and restore health. Even just standing on unpainted concrete, like a driveway or sidewalk, will allow an exchange of electrons.
I had been wearing minimalist shoes for over a year but decided I needed to…
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Bad Cat Chris 