We have had this cat perch for almost a year and I have never seen anyone use the cubby hole on the bottom until a couple of weeks ago when Chris discovered it.
Author Archives: Charles Huss
Stubborn Cat Chris
This post was from almost two and a half years ago and it illustrates how Chris just loves being where the action is.
We had a party Saturday afternoon for Rose’s staff. I moved the bikes outside and we put a table on the patio for food and refreshments. It was something different and too much for Chris to resist. He kept jumping on the table and we kept making him get down. But being a bad cat is in Chris’s nature so he would not stop getting on the table.

Rose wanted me to put him in the house so I pulled him off the table twice and put him inside. After the second time she realized the cat door was still open. I knew it was open but I felt bad about locking him inside. Rose didn’t feel bad and closed the cat door. That only worked until the first guest arrived and then Chris was on the patio the first time the sliding door opened.
The patio was just the first step. From…
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Tigger’s Near-Fatal Binge Eating
Tigger is no longer with us but his memory will always be here. I was thinking about Tigger today and how we almost lost him due to a new food that was so good but so bad. Let us get into the way-back machine and travel back to Thursday, March 22, 2007. Wait…No! Let’s go back about a week or so before that.
I got a coupon for a free bag of a new cat food called The Good Life Recipe. This was back when I thought Iams was a relatively healthy cat food and that is what our cats were eating. This new food was like giving popcorn to a seagull. They loved it and ate like there was no tomorrow.
Even though I wasn’t as knowledgeable about cat food then as I am now, I knew it was too good to be good for them. I figured I would let them finish the bag. Later I would buy the small bags of it and give them out like kitty treats. It worked and it was way cheaper than real kitty treats.
Now, getting back to the story. Rose and I had met our mortgage broker after work and then had a late dinner at a Mexican restaurant on the way home. We both had our own cars so when we left I followed Rose home. I was delayed in traffic and when I got home I saw Rose’s car in the driveway with the lights on, the engine running and the driver’s door open but there was nobody in sight.
I don’t know what was going through my head at the time but I would imagine it was nothing good. Inside, Rose was frantic. Tigger was having trouble breathing and we needed to get him to a vet right away. Our kids, Chris and Nick, were just about to bring him to the vet but they didn’t know where to go so they called Rose shortly before she got home.
We didn’t know where to go either. This was before we could open our phones and ask Google. Rose drove and I held Tigger on my lap. He was really struggling to get air and I worried we would lose him. Rose was even more worried than I because she kept repeating that he was going to die.
She called her sister, Felice, who knew of an after hours vet in Port Richey but that was too far. We headed that way anyway and I tried calling information to see if I could find one closer. At that time, information had transitioned from a real person to a worthless robot that was no help at all so we made the trip to Port Richey.
They did several tests and found that Tigger had a large blockage in his esophagus so they put a long instrument down his throat and pushed it into his stomach. We will never know for sure what that blockage was, but since he was found at the food bowl, I’m sure he ate that new food so fast that it got caught in his airway. At $500, that was the most expensive free bag of cat food in history.
Nowadays I feed them a much higher quality dry cat food that they like but not enough to binge eat it. I would get rid of it completely if not for Chris’s stubbornness about eating wet food.
So that’s Tigger’s story. I like reminiscing. I think soon I will write about how we came to adopt him and his brother, Flash.
Photo Friday: The Stare
Photo Friday: The Great Outdoors
Our last house was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Puck doesn’t go outside anymore because he is easily frightened. This area is not enclosed and I don’t want to lose him. I tried the harness but he freaked out before leaving the house.
Chris loves going outside and sometimes he is just downright annoying about asking to go out. The other day I gave in to his demands and let him out.
When I let him out, it is usually for just five or ten minutes while I stand there and watch him. Sometimes he runs out the door when I come home, despite my best efforts to contain him, and I just give him a few minutes before retrieve him.
When he goes outside he usually just eats grass for the first few minutes, unless a lizard crosses his path. I have heard that cats eat grass when they are not feeling good but Chris always wants to eat grass. I hope that doesn’t mean he always feels bad. He sure does not act like he’s sick.
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A New Fourth Kitty?
My sister-in-law is at it again. She has been busy saving the lives of more kittens and still has one gold kitten that will need a home soon. Rose has been hinting that she wants to adopt him but emotional decisions do not always end well. Let’s consider the pros and cons, starting with the cons:
- We are already over our two cat limit.
- Raising cats the healthy way is expensive.
- We already have three boys. Perhaps a girl is needed.
- Our dream of traveling after retirement could be more difficult.
- We would be dangerously close to entering the Crazy Cat Lady/Man Zone.
Now for the pros:
- Chris is a very touchy-feely cat. He might like having someone else to nap with.
- Cats can tolerate a new kitten better than a new adult cat.
- A new kitten might motivate me to start making my own cat food.
- We would be helping a kitten in need.
- Retirement is still more than 10 years away, 20 if they keep raising the retirement age.
- Kittens are super cute.
I do not yet have a picture of the kitten but I snagged this picture off of Pixabay. It is what I imagine he looks like.

Photo by Rudy and Peter Skitterians, Skitterphoto on Pixabay.
So what do you think? Any suggestions?
On another note, I actually won the Tuesday Teaser on One Spoiled Cat and get to display this badge.
I had a long streak of missing the Teaser but catching the Tell-All the next day.
Photo Friday: Morning Nap
I saved this photo from yesterday’s post because I thought it was a very cute photo of Frankie and deserved its own page. Isn’t it so cute when cats show their bellies when they sleep.
Morning Sunbathing
Cats, like humans, follow a routine. Our cats are no different. Our catio has awnings that block the sun most of the day but there is a great chance to catch some rays after the sun comes up and all our cats usually take advantage of that. In fact, as I write this, Chris and Puck are lying in the sunbeam. I don’t know where Frankie is off to now but he is usually here to enjoy the sun.
Wysong Epigen 90 Pet Food
I have changed our cats food again. I keep discovering undesirable things about their dry kibble food and then switch to something that I think is better, only to discover that is not so good either.
I have known for at least five years that kibble is bad for them. I tried to switch them to a raw food diet and started buying frozen raw cat food but they didn’t like it. Chris was the only one who would eat it and even he was not impressed. I started mixing it with canned food and that worked until I tried to go beyond a 50/50 ratio and then they didn’t eat it. I experimented with different canned foods but it seemed that the worst quality canned foods had the best results which just seemed to work against what I was doing so I eventually gave up.
I did start feeding them more wet cat food though, eventually settling on Earthborn Holistic Chicken Catcciatori and other flavors. I give our three cats one 5.5 ounce can in the morning and another in the evening. On weekends or when Rose works from home they get a third can.
I have wanted to get rid of the dry food for a few years now and just give them wet food but Chris won’t eat the wet food. He has become addicted to the dry. I made this video two years ago, It shows how Chris will eat very little of his food before abandoning it or allowing another cat to take it. He hasn’t changed since then. He may even be worse.
I still put dry food out for the cats, mostly so Chris won’t starve but I have been only putting small amounts in the bowls and I allow them to remain empty for a fair amount of time before I feed them wet food. My hope is that Chris will be hungry and eat more wet food but that never seems to make a difference. Lately I have been putting even less dry food in their bowls but still Chris won’t eat the wet food.
I recently started working for a company that makes herbal health products. I commented to one of the owners that one of their products might help my cat (Puck) with his skin condition. He said I should look up a Dr. Will Falconer, which I did. Dr. Falconer has several good articles on his website, most of them confirming what I already knew and some expanding beyond my knowledge.
For example, he says cats should never have dry food. This I mostly knew but he makes you realize how important it is. He talks about how a dogs tongue can curve like a spoon and lap up lots of water but cats can’t do that. They are designed to get most of their moisture from their prey, which is 80 – 90 percent water, but now eat kibble that is 10 percent water.
Another problem with dry pet food is that they all contain starch. Even a food that is grain free contains loads of starch. It is the glue they use to hold the pieces together and it is not good for your pet. Dr. Falconer recommends Wysong for dogs because it is starch-free, among other reasons. I read that it was the only starch-free, dry pet food on the market but I don’t remember where I read it.
Even though he doesn’t recommend it for cats, I picked up a bag anyway. I figured I would try to give them the healthiest food available until I can transition them off the dry food. I purchased a five pound bag of Wysong Epigen 90 for dogs and cats. Yes, this food is for both dogs and cats. That is the first time I ever saw that so it must be different.
All of our cats seemed to like the taste of the new food, so that is a start.
This is certainly not an advertisement for Wysong, nor did I get any free products but do have an affiliate account with Amazon so if you purchase anything through my link I will get a small commission (very small). I will say that I noticed some bad reviews on the product from 2014 that were related to a change in the formula but since then all reviews have been good so I assumed any problems have been addressed. The problems at that time seemed to be intestinal related, like diarrhea, hopefully that won’t be an issue now.
My ultimate goal is to start making my own raw cat food. I need to get a good meat grinder but before I do that I need a good source of quality meats and organs that I can’t find near me. I don’t want to give them raw meat from a sick, industrial animal. There are some places that sell organic meats but I also need things like heart and liver which they don’t sell. If anyone has any ideas or comments, please enrich me.

















