Author Archives: Charles Huss

Ferals at Work Update

For Throwback Thursday here is part seven of my “Ferals at Work” series. This was from March of 2016.

I am still putting food out for the ferals that hang around my place of employment but for a stretch of a couple of weeks I saw them very rarely. The food was always gone when I checked later in the day so I assumed they were just showing up later than usual. That surprised me because there is a school behind my work and activity increases exponentially after I get there.

One day I saw several birds interested in the food.

I worried that maybe the birds were eating it but I never saw the birds after that so I think that wasn’t normal.

Fortunately, I started seeing more of the feral cats again about two weeks ago. Some days I see only one and not always the same one but other days I see all three like this morning and when I took this video.

This fellow usually shows up…

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Morning Mayhem

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This story happened on Monday of last week and involves three bad cats.

My wife, Rose, recently developed wrist pain and she sometimes wakes up and can’t go back to sleep because of it. On this day she got up at about 3:15 in the morning. As I was trying to go back to sleep I heard her open the outside door to throw something out and then I heard her yell at Frankie. She then announced, “Frankie got out.”

That morning happened to be the coldest this season and I was tired and I didn’t want to get up at 3:15 in the morning to chase Frankie around the neighborhood. I knew he would come back so I tried to go back to sleep but him being outside bothered me so I eventually dragged myself out of bed, put on some warm clothes and a jacket, and went out to look for him.

The Jacket I had on was a Florida jacket and didn’t come close to fulfilling its job of keeping me warm. I walked around the area for 15 minutes looking for Frankie but eventually got too cold and had to go home.

I decided to go back to bed because I was very tired but now Chris and Puck were on the bed. I just left them there and got into bed.

Everything was fine for a short time and I almost fell asleep but then Chris started bothering me. He positioned himself next to my face and started licking and biting my nose. When I turned my head away, he started digging his claws into my neck and the back of my head. I tried pushing him away but he kept coming back. Eventually, Rose heard what was going on and came in to help. She removed all the cats from the bedroom and closed the door so I could go back to sleep.

After a little while of trying to go back to sleep, I heard the door open and I heard Rose say, “Come inside you bad boy.” Frankie was back. That made me feel better but I had another problem.

Just before or just after Frankie came back, I don’t remember, I felt Puck get on the bed. Appearently, Rose did not remove all the cats from the bedroom. That concerned me a little because the last time he was trapped in the bedroom he peed on the bed and on me. I tried to put that thought out of my mind but before too much time passed I felt a very warm feeling against my leg. He did it again! He peed on the bed! And he peed on me!

That woke me up fast. I got out of bed and gathered up all the sheets and threw them outside to be washed. Then I got in the shower before I did anything else.

Fortunately, we had a mattress cover on the bed which protected our mattress and our expensive foam mattress pad. I replaced the sheets and blanket with a new set and I put the other ones in the wash.

Washing clothes in our house is a step-by-step process. I might put a load in the washing machine in the morning before I go to work and then put it in the dryer when I get home. We have a high-efficiency washer and dryer but the dryer is not very efficient. Even at the driest setting it never dries on the first try. Since the machines are outside, I never hear the buzzer when they’re done so I always have to remember, which is something I am not good at. Sometimes it will take a full day or more to wash, dry and remove clothes from the dryer. Eventually, I got everything out and folded but decided to wait until we changed the sheets, which we always do on Saturday morning, before putting the mattress cover back on. Bad decision.

Friday morning Rose got up to use the bathroom and all the cats busted through the door when she opened it. This time it was a more reasonable hour. It was almost time to get up anyway. Chris and Puck jumped on the bed like they usually do while I waited for Rose to get out of the bathroom.

When I got up and walked towards the bathroom I touched the foot of the bed for some reason and noticed it was wet. Puck peed on it again! I couldn’t believe it. He was only in our room for two minutes. This time there was no cover to protect the bed.

I pulled the sheets up and I pulled up the mattress pad and noticed some of the pee had gone down through four inches of foam into the mattress. I was able to save the mattress with some urine eliminator but the mattress pad was a goner.

The rest of the story is only appropriate for an R-rated blog.

Photo Friday: Besties

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Even though Chris seems to sleep with Frankie more often than Puck, I think it is Chris and Puck who are probably the two best friends in our house. They are the only two that I never see fight with each other, except for a rare whap now and then. Puck often sleeps in the cubicle on the cat perch or sometimes he naps at the opposite end of the house as everyone else. That might explain why Chris chooses to sleep with Frankie more often.

Photo Friday: Chris Loves Frankie

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Chris loves everyone, actually. He is just a very affectionate cat that always has to be touching someone and Frankie seems to tolerate it.

Three Feral Cats Now Wait For Breakfast

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Here is the next episode in the “Ferals at Work” saga for Throwback Thursday. I think this is number six but I lost count.

Bad Cat Chris

For over a month now a tabby cat that I have called “My Little Buddy” has been waiting for me almost every morning when I get to work. I don’t feel that namefits that cat anymore because I get the feeling that she is female. I’m not sure why I think that, perhaps it is because she reminds me of my cat Abbey, shy but not fearful. I feel like I need to name them all but without knowing their sex, it is difficult.

Until a few weeks ago, three cats would come around to eat but only the one tabby would be there waiting for me. A fourth cat joined the group a few weeks ago (See There’s a New Feral in Town)and about two weeks ago the white and gold (ginger)cat joined the regular breakfast crew.

Do you see the second cat in the grass?

Sometimes now…

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Chris’s Eighth Gotcha Day and Givaway

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On November 14, 2009, we brought home a cat that would be both the best and worst adoption decision we ever made. Of course, I’m talking about Chris. He turned our house upside down for years but he also has been the most loving and affectionate pet we ever had. The funny thing is, we took more time deciding to adopt Chris than some people take to decide to adopt a human child.

I first encountered Chris on September 24th or 25th of that year when I was a volunteer for a local cat rescue organization. He was up for adoption at Petsmart and I was cleaning the cages there that morning. I let out every cat on the top row and as I was cleaning the cages Chris jumped on my back and proceeded to climb onto my shoulders. Once there, he started licking and biting my ear and my nose.

We already had four cats at the time (Abbey, Alex, Tigger and Flash) and didn’t need another one. There was also another cat at the shelter, Kinsey, who was also a shoulder climber and one my wife and I both liked, but we had a belief at the time that gold cats made exceptionally good pets.

The organization that had Chris was called Sav-R-Cats and they rotated with two other shelters at the Myrtle Beach Petsmart. I think each organization got two weeks there. Chris was back at their shelter on October 3rd when I brought my wife, Rose, to see him.

Chris at adoption center with Rose.

They hit it off very well but we were not ready to adopt another cat at that time, especially since we had to go back to Tampa for a week-long cruise that I booked when we lived there. I picked a Tampa cruise so we wouldn’t have to drive far.

Another six weeks would pass before we would decide to take Chris home. At one point, either before or after my first encounter with him, someone adopted Chris and returned him the next day because he annoyed them all night by biting them. If they hadn’t brought him back, I would probably not be blogging today.

To celebrate Chris’s Gotcha Day, I made his ebook, “Bad Cat Chris; The Baddest Cat You’ll Ever Love” free for three days, starting today. This book is a condensed version of this blog with some added material. It chronicles the ups and downs of our life with Chris from the beginning until the middle of 2013. It was a very difficult and rewarding time for us. Thankfully, or not, Chris has mellowed some since then but we still can’t let him sleep with us because he is still a biter.

If you do read his book, I would love it if you would write a review on Amazon.

Photo Friday: Group Portrait

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Seeing all four of our cats in one place is a rare event around here. Three is more common but even that happens infrequent enough to warrant a photograph. I guess they have conflicting schedules. For some reason, Puck is usually the odd cat out.

Puck Stands His Ground

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I think I mentioned before that Frankie is a bit of a bully and that contributes, at least in part, to Puck’s stress and litter box issues. But while Puck may be stressed by Frankie, he is not intimidated by him. Fights happen all the time in our house but the most aggressive and unplayful fights happen between Puck and Frankie.

We had a night or two of cold weather last week and Rose had out a small blanket to keep her legs warm. On Friday morning I noticed the blanket was still out so I folded it and placed it on one of the cushions. I thought one of the cats would like to lie on it. I was right. Puck found it to be quite comfortable.

That evening, as Rose and I were watching television, Frankie attacked Puck while he was lying on that blanket. There were hissing and screaming and fur flying and yelling (from us humans) and when the dust settled Frankie was in possession of the blanket. But Puck wasn’t done . . .

He jumped back up and plopped himself down on the blanket right next to Frankie as if to dare him to try to knock him off again. Chris saw what was going on and added his considerable weight to the blanket issue (and his weight is considerable).