Author Archives: Charles Huss

Maybe Some Cats Shouldn’t be “Rescued”

Here is a post from a couple of years ago about our “wild” cat Frankie. He hasn’t changed much since then but I know he is happy that he has a home.

Bad Cat Chris

If you have ever looked for a cat to adopt on Petfinder or the website of your local shelter, you may have noticed that a fair amount of them have been ear-tipped. If you don’t know what that is, when a stray or feral cat is captured and fixed, the vet will remove the tip of one ear or put a notch in one ear to show that the cat has already been fixed.

Ear “tipping” or “notching” is usually done for the Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) programs but sometimes a well-meaning person will trap a cat that is friendly to humans and not release it but put it up for adoption. I believe that is what happened to Frankie, although we know nothing about his history. We do know he has a notch in his ear indicating he was probably captured as a feral, perhaps at a young age.

View original post 846 more words

Merry Christmas

17 Replies

Bad Cat Chris and family want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, we still hope you have a great day.

Photo Friday: Getting Ready for a Long Winter’s Nap

15 Replies

I hesitated to post another picture of our four cats on the bed together for the second week in a row but I couldn’t leave a cute photo like this locked away on my computer. It seems our bed is a feline gathering place when the temperature gets cold.It has warmed since I took this photo and everyone is back to separate napping spots, except Chris who likes to nap on top of someone.

Goodbye My Ferals

10 Replies

This is the last of my Ferals at Work stories for Throwback Thursday. I hope the little guys are doing okay.

Bad Cat Chris

I am starting a new job on Tuesday so Friday was the last time I will see my feral cats at work. The week and a half after I gave my notice I saw very little of them. Sometimes I would put food out at 8 a.m. and it would still be there at noon. Other times it would be gone but I couldn’t be sure the birds weren’t eating it. I was actually glad about that because it meant that the cats didn’t need me and I could stop worrying about not being there for them.

Then the shy one showed up on Tuesday morning.

I was off on Wednesday and the gold and white cat was there Thursday morning, waiting in the parking lot for me.

On my last day both the gold and white cat and the grey and white were there waiting.

I feel bad about…

View original post 27 more words

First Impressions of Honest Kitchen Prowl Cat Food

22 Replies

Last week I needed to buy more canned cat food because I was completely out, but I also needed to buy human food and the two stores were miles apart. My first stop was Sprouts Farmer’s Market. If you are unfamiliar with them, they are similar to Whole Foods. While there I looked in their pet food section and saw they had Honest Kitchen Prowl Cat Food on sale for $20.

Prowl is a dehydrated food with relatively healthy ingredients. The box says it makes six pounds of food after hydration. I did the math and decided that six pounds for $20 was better than 8.25 pounds for $40, which is what a case of Earthborn Holistic Chicken Catcciaori cost at my local store (although I just noticed it is less money on Amazon). It also saved me from driving across town to get it.

My biggest concern, besides whether they would like it, is how much patience they would have waiting for me to prepare it. The answer is not much. I followed the directions and mixed one cup of food with one cup of water, which I thought was good for four cats. I waited what I thought was three minutes, although time seems to pass more slowly when hungry cats are waiting. I expected the soupy mixture to thicken up to a more solid consistency but it didn’t. It remained an awful looking soup. I added more of the Prowl and then more again until it looked like it was supposed to.

The cats were not impressed. Frankie ate some but everyone else just waited for the real food.

I tried to show them that it was good by letting them lick it off my finger. My hope was that they would then see that it was good and start eating from their bowls but that didn’t work.

I ended up buying their canned food and mixing the Prowl with it. I start with a heaping tablespoon and then add a small amount of water and mix it. I don’t wait the full three minutes because I have hungry felines to deal with so I open a can of food and add that to the mixture. I stir it all together and divide it onto four plates. I don’t have a picture of that but I can tell you they love it that way. I suppose it is a texture thing for them.

Once the Prowl is gone I will probably go back to making homemade raw cat food and mix that with their canned food like had done before I ran out of everything.

New Furniture, Bad Cats

30 Replies

We recently got rid of some old furniture in our Florida room, including the sofa that started Puck pooping outside the litter box, and had a new trundle bed delivered. My wife went to Badcock without me and ordered it from a catalog They didn’t have a sample in the store.

It arrived the Thursday before last. Rose was in Orlando for business and I had to stay home and wait for delivery. When they arrived, I had to lock out the cats so the guys could come in and out as well as put everything together without being bothered.

Chris was very interested and Floki was not as nervous as I expected.

Frankie was indifferent.

After it was put together and they needed a signature I asked where the mattresses were. They said it didn’t come with mattresses. I said I’m sure my wife didn’t intend to buy this without mattresses.

Sure enough, the salesman never informed her that the mattresses in the photo were not included. You would think he would want to make more money by selling more products. But on a positive note, the cats loved being able to climb through to the bottom.

We also got a cabinet for the kitchen that was designed to look old. That way when the cats scratch it, nobody will notice.

We had to cover the trundle bed for a week until the new mattresses arrived but nobody minded, especially Chris.

One day after the bed arrived, Frankie decided to make it unreturnable by digging holes in it. Rose was not happy with him.

When the mattresses did arrive, Rose put new sheets on them and covered the bed with a blanket. The next morning Puck pooped on it.

Now we have to have pee pads on it. This is our life with cats.

On a separate note, Puck did not pee outside the box between Monday morning and Saturday morning, but we did wake up the last two mornings to pee. Very disappointing.

Photo Friday: Napping in Chaos

15 Replies

We had furniture delivered last week so before it arrived we got rid of the old furniture and then pushed everything to one side of the room. I put one of the small cat perches on a chair next to the table to get it out of the way but that didn’t deter Chris. He still managed to nap on it. He even had his Kitty Kix Stick with him.

Seven Days of Ferals

4 Replies

Here is part eight of my “Ferals at Work” series for throwback Thursday. I was going to write a regular post today but I am just too busy.

Bad Cat Chris

Lately, I have been taking pictures of the feral cats at work almost every morning when I feed them. Of course, this isn’t everyday because I work four days a week, sometimes five. Also, there are not always cats around when I put food out, but I wanted to share with you some of the pictures I have taken recently.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016 – These two usually hang out together but not always.

Thursday, March 3 – I often see this one waiting under the palm tree when I arrive at work.

Monday, March 7 – The cat to the far left of the picture below is the shyest of the three and is difficult to photograph because he is usually, but not always, too far away.

This one is the easiest to photograph.

Tuesday, March 8 – There seems to be a territorial dispute here even though I…

View original post 132 more words

Photo Friday: Cats of Thanksgiving

19 Replies

We went to my sister-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving and I was told I need to ignore the cats and take family pictures. I think I managed to get one photo of my wife and her mother and that was it. Nobody wanted to get together for a group photo. The good news is that I didn’t ignore the cats and I have some cute photos for you.