Author Archives: Charles Huss

Wrongly Accused?

When I first saw that a cat had pooped on our new sofa, naturally I knew it was Chris because that is the kind I thing that Chris would do. Then it happened again and again, perhaps six or eight times in all. The last three times , including this morning, I began to think Chris may not be the cat doing this.

About a week ago a poop appeared when Chris was napping on our bed. I didn’t know exactly when it happened, so I couldn’t rule Chris out, but it did make me wonder. Then, a few days ago, I saw Puck on the sofa through the kitchen window and a few minutes later I noticed the cover was moved. When I looked closer, I saw that it was folded over to cover a poop. It may have already been like that but if it was, I would think I would have seen Puck sniffing that area.

This morning I saw Puck again from the kitchen. He was standing on the sofa looking suspicious. I watched him until he laid down and then I went about my business. About ten minutes later there was a poop on the sofa. Puck was standing under the table about five feet away while Chris was lying on the floor in the kitchen.

I have no hard evidence but I think that Puck is the culprit, not Chris. I have been worried about him lately because he seems to be excessively grooming himself to the point where the fur on his back and the inside of his thighs is very thin. He also has small patches of fur missing from his head from fighting with Frankie and from Chris trying to dominate him. Perhaps he is just over stressed. I think we need to bring him to the vet. There may be one solution that will help the pooping and the grooming.

A New Level of Badness

And Then There Were Three… Ferals

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I have seen my feral cat at work only occasionally since my last post about him.

I can understand his absence because we have had a lot of rain these last two weeks. My place of employment even flooded last weekend and then it flooded again on Monday while we were cleaning up from the first flood.

View from my work, August 3.

Friday was a dry morning but I did not see the cat around when I put food out for him. As I was looking for him, I spotted another cat in the distance. He was a gold and white cat that looked like one I saw a few times months ago, perhaps even over a year ago. I walked back inside and got my camera and quietly opened the door a crack to get some pictures as the cat moved in the direction of the food.
After he walked out of view behind the building, I waited long enough for him to get to the food and then I peeked around the corner to find he had stopped and was now looking at me. I don’t know how he knew I was there. It is a noisy environment and I walked very quietly. Perhaps he smelled me. Must be the deodorant.

I backed up and gave him more time and this time he was eating the food I put out.

After about ten minutes I thought the cat would be gone and I should put out another handful of food for my other feral. When I got outside I was surprised to find another cat where the food was. This one seemed to be looking for food but it was gone, or almost gone.

I snapped a couple of pictures and then put my camera away and slowly approached the cat. I knew he would retreat but I wanted it to stay close enough to see what I was doing. He, or she, backed off about ten feet and when I got closer, ran off to the left where, unnoticed by me, the gold cat was waiting for him. The two of them ran together around a nearby building and disappeared. Later the food was gone so one, or both, of them came back.

I noticed that all three cats are ear tipped, indicating they have been fixed, which is good. It also means that they may be part of a managed colony. If so, my food is more of a treat for them, but I would hate to stop putting it out since it is being eaten.

Feral Cats At Work

Feral Cat Update

Happy World Cat Day

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World Cat Day, or International Cat Day, is a day to celebrate the world’s most popular pet. It was started in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and other animal rights groups, To help celebrate, I put a collage together of all my cats, past and present, including: Sneakers, Vinny, Princess, Abbey, Alex, Tigger, Flash, Chris, Puck, Frankie and two cats we babysat for a few months, Luke and Matilda.

Photo Friday: Imitation

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After seeing this photo, I imagined Puck saw the photo on the screen and was checking to see if he could stick out his tongue that far.

Chris’s Heart

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Three years have passed since I wrote this and he still seems to burn the candle at both ends.

Bad Cat Chris

When we first got Chris he would lie across my neck or on top of my head. Rose used to joke that, “You can wear him as a hat, you can wear him as a scarf…” Because we could hear his heartbeat when he did that, we noticed early on that his heartbeat was incredibly fast. It seemed as though he just finished a marathon, and since Chris was such a busy kitten, we concluded that he was exhausting himself.

Besides the fast heartbeat, Chris would also breathe very quickly, taking in many breaths of air in a short time. My concern led me to do some research where I found this to be somewhat normal for kittens.

Fast forward about a year where Chris and Tigger were napping on the bed. I noticed Chris was breathing very quickly while he was napping. I decided to count the breaths. Chris took…

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The Dominant Cat

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We have always joked that Chris has to be the alpha in the house. The truth is, cats are not like dogs, there is no “alpha” cat in the wild, at least not among African Wildcats, the species that evolved into the modern domestic house cat.

African Wildcats are loners, especially the males. Each male has a single territory that does not overlap another male’s territory but may overlap several females’ territories. This may cause competition for mating purposes but there is no group that requires a leader.

About 12,000 years ago in the Middle East, humans started to give up their hunter-gatherer lifestyle and became farmers. This, of course, was a very gradual process but eventually there were communities of people growing wheat and other grains. They stored these grains in large bins that attracted rodents. The increase in rodents, in turn, attracted cats.

The humans not only tolerated the cats, they welcomed them. Cats were an almost perfect solution to the rodent problem but having several cats in the same area was a bit unnatural. I don’t know how they got along back then but over time they evolved to tolerate each other as well as humans.

Our domestic cats today have never developed the hierarchy or cooperation found in a pack of wolves, but they can live together in large groups that are not related without killing each other. Some even develop friendships with each other. I have noticed that male cats seem to get along better than female cats but that is the opposite of what happens between wild cats. I have also noticed that a lot of fighting happens between periods of calm.

Understanding what drives social behavior in cats is a complicated issue that I don’t come close to understanding. Chris’s behavior is a good example. He is always trying to be the dominant, or alpha, cat in the house, but since cats don’t have alphas, I’m not sure what he is thinking. Frankie does not let Chris dominate him, which is sometimes a source of tension. Puck is the submissive one and I sometimes feel bad because Frankie is always chasing him around the house in what may, or may not, be play.

Chris is different. He will show Puck plenty of affection most of the time but occasionally he will grab the back of his neck and hold him down. I try to break it up but Chris won’t let go. I have to pry his mouth open. On several occasions, I have even seen him standing over Puck, with two legs on the left and two on the right, dragging him by the neck across the floor. A short time after that he will lie down next to Puck and wash his ears.

I have heard that pinching the scruff of a cat’s neck will produce a calming affect. Perhaps it is necessary as a kitten so the mother can carry her young without them struggling and it just remains through adulthood. I’m not sure why Chris would want to calm Puck down. He is already submissive to Chris. Perhaps it is just a friendly reminder that Chris is the boss.

What do you think? Do your cats do this?

Photo Friday: Lulu the Kitten

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Our rescue kitten has recovered from her diarrhea and is doing well. Felice sent these pictures of her, taken yesterday morning. She has grown into quite a cute little kitten.

Compare her now to her rescue day.

Chris Takes the High Ground

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This post was from three years ago and Chris has gained some weight since then so he tends to stay closer to the ground these days, but not always.

Bad Cat Chris

Chris on kitchen cabinet

Cats, by nature, seem to like being up high. I suppose it is the predator instinct and it is no more obvious than in a cat like Chris. I mentioned before that he likes getting on top of things and our new apartment seemed like it was built with him in mind.

For starters, our kitchen cabinets do not go to the ceiling so there is a gap above them that Chris loves to get into. he usually jumps on the counter, then to the refrigerator and from there it is an easy step up. Sometimes he will leap from the fridge to the cabinets on the opposite side. I worry that he will miss and hurt himself but so far, so good.

I don’t know how he does this

Then there is the handrail at the upstairs landing, it overlooks the living room and is…

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Come Out of the Closet

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Oh, the jealousy that follows when one finds a new place to investigate.

Puck: What’s going on Frankie? Frankie: Chris got the door open to the towel closet and is inside.

You guys go find your own closet.

How much longer are you going to be in there, Chris?

Wait your turn, Puck. I’m next.

Ok, that’s long enough. Get out of the closet, Chris. It’s my turn.

I think maybe this is a good place for a nap.

Weekend Update

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I just wanted to catch you up on some of the stories I wrote about recently.

The feral cat I have been feeding at work is doing okay (see Feral Cats at Work and Feral Cat Update). I worried because he didn’t show up on Tuesday and the food went uneaten all day. I had Wednesday off and Thursday the cat was back like nothing happened. This time he left a fair amount of food behind. That tells me there is a good chance that he is either a good hunter or someone is feeding him elsewhere too. Of course, he may have also been scared off before he finished but I doubt it. In that situation, he would have backed off and waited for the person to leave but there were no people in sight when I came outside, nor was the cat anywhere in sight.

Chris has pooped on our new sofa twice more since I first mentioned it (See A New Level of Badness). I stopped using the Dr. Elsey’s Litter Attractant a couple of years ago when Chris’s pooping problem stopped but I bought some again in hopes that he would leave the sofa alone. I bought it at Petco for $20 and then noticed it was on Amazon for $7.63. It has worked for me in the past but this time It made no difference.

Chris is very finicky about his litter boxes and when we brought the sofa in we changed things around a little. Perhaps the space between the sofa and litter boxes was too small. It was plenty big enough for a cat to get through but who knows what goes through his mind.

I decided to pull out the boxes a bit so that they were more easily accessible. It is better now but one box is still too close to the couch. So far, so good but we will see what happens.

The kitten we helped rescue ( see Newborn Kitten Rescue and Kitten Update) had been doing well until recently. Rose wanted to name the cat Luis, after her maintenance supervisor who started the rescue process, but the cat turned out to be female so now she is named Lulu. Felice has worked hard to keep Lulu healthy but she has recently developed diarrhea, which can be very bad in young kittens. Bottle feeding a kitten is not a good replacement for mother’s milk and we can only hope she will get better. I have every confidence in Felice’s ability so I am not too concerned. Unfortunately, I have no new pictures of the kitten to share but here is one from July 4th in case you missed it.