Author Archives: Charles Huss

Privacy Interrupted


Chris figured out how to get into the cabinet above the refrigerator. That wasn’t easy because the door opened towards him which blocked his way in. He somehow figured a way around that and probably thought he could enjoy some time to himself but that was not to be. Frankie saw what he did and came to investigate.

Better luck next time, Chris.

Monopolizing the Game


My wife invited four of our friends for dinner on Saturday night as a quasi house-warming party. She thought it would be a good idea to have some board games that we could play so we bought Monopoly and Yahtzee. The opportunity to play never came up on Saturday but the next day Rose challenged me to a game of Monopoly.

Everything went well for a while but then Chris jumped onto the table and lied down on top of the board after walking over my money and messing it up. I picked him up and put him down on the floor but he jumped up on the table again. This time he lied down off to the side a bit so I thought it would be better to leave him there than to constantly play the game of up-down. I was wrong. He started swishing his tail and Rose’s houses went flying so down he went.

cat Chris on Monopoly game

He didn’t get back up, probably because Floki was now on the table wondering what was going on.

Since nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, Frankie had to get up on the table to investigate.

Eventually, when all our cats were done monopolizing our game, we were able to play again. Naturally, I won but don’t tell Rose I told you. Shhh.

A similar thing happened years ago with Tigger while playing Monopoly. You can see that here on my blog Just Fur Laughs.

 

Puck’s Sixth Gotcha Day


I was going through the notifications on my phone Sunday evening and decided to click on one from google photos. I typically ignore them because they are not important but I decided to look. They had “stylized” one of my photos which was no big deal. Every day they do something with your photos. Sometimes it’s an animation, sometimes it’s an album from a certain day and place, sometimes it’s a collage from this day in history. I scrolled down and saw “Rediscover this day” from September 15, 2012. It was the day we adopted Puck.

Screen capture from google photosCoincidently, we had friends over for dinner Saturday evening, one of whom was Lynn, our cat sitter. She talked about how sad she was that Puck was gone. She said Puck was her favorite and she loved how he always got on her lap and purred and purred. We all felt a bit sad after that.

Our cat Puck on ledge.

Puck 2012-2018

 

New Profile Photo


It has been a while since I updated my profile photo so yesterday when Chris was on my shoulders I asked my wife to take a picture of us. It was impromptu and I didn’t have a chance to comb my hair or pick a nicer setting with better lighting but I thought it was good enough to use.Cat Chris and Chuck profile photo

Our last profile photo was taken in early 2011 so it was time for a change.

Chris and Chuck

I have a few other photos of Chris on my shoulders that were never used as profile pictures but are worth sharing. This one is from late 2010. It’s a little blurry which is probably why I never used it.

 

This is just a bad photo from 2013. Why I am sharing it, I don’t know.

 

 

Bad Cat Chris on my shoulders

Here is the earliest photo I have of Chris. It was taken with my cheap cell phone in 2009 at the animal shelter where I found him. He was on my shoulders then as always. I texted this photo to my wife, who was on a business trip, asking if we could “keep him.”

New Life For Jackson Galaxy Bed


Last summer we won a Jackson Galaxy Comfy Clamshell Bed from The Island Cats blog (read about it here). Chris and Floki both liked it and it was used until we got a heated cat bed from Art of Paws (read about that here). Chris and Floki both liked that bed too. Since it was summer I took the heating element out and put it on the coffee table and that eventually became Floki’s bed.

At one point the Jackson Galaxy bed must have been put away because I don’t remember seeing it at the old house for the last several months. Of course, I am not very observant either. When we got to our new home, my wife found it and put it in the Florida room, which is now the cats’ room. That is where Chris and Floki rediscovered it and are now spending a lot of time together sharing the bed.

cats on Jackson Galaxy cat bed

cats on Jackson Galaxy cat bed

cats on Jackson Galaxy cat bed

cats on Jackson Galaxy cat bed

cats on Jackson Galaxy cat bed

They do have other interests too. As I was writing this the bed was empty and Floki was on the Art of Paws bed while Chris was on the desk hanging out with me.

 

New House, Same Old Chris


Moving to a new house did not interrupt Chris’s naughty behavior. In fact, it may have rekindled it. One of the things he used to do is pick at the bottom of closed doors. He destroyed the bathroom door in our last house and we had to replace it (read about that here). He stopped doing that at the old house but now he has started up again. I was awakened this morning by the sound of scratching at the door. I lied in bed thinking he would stop but then heard the sound of cracking wood. That wasn’t good. When I opened the door to see what happened this is what I saw.

Later that morning I heard the same familiar sound of wood splintering. This time Chris was trying to get into the hall closet.

Fortunately, we had already decided that all the interior doors needed to be replaced and I ordered six new doors just two or three days ago. There apparently was a flood in this house at one time and the bottoms of all the doors were not, shall we say, in prime condition. Some of the subfloors needed to be replaced too which we had done when we had the flooring installed.

Cabinets are another problem area with Chris. It seems he has to get into every cabinet he can find. Sometimes it takes him time to figure out which side opens.

cat Chris trying to open cabinetHe is most annoying standing by the pantry and crying. We kept his dry food in a very similar pantry cabinet at the other house so I think he assumes it is in this cabinet, but it is not. It is on top of the fridge. I tried to show him several times his food is not there but he is not convinced. This morning he pulled out a can of wet food. I don’t think he can smell it through the can so I assume he knows it by sight, which surprises me, especially since that was a can of Earthborn that I haven’t fed them for a week. What I have been feeding them is in the cabinet above and the cans are a different color and shape.

Hopefully, he will settle down soon. I would hate for him to destroy the new doors.