Author Archives: Charles Huss

Frankie’s Belated Gotcha Day

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I forgot Frankie’s Gotcha Day which was last week on the 9th. Since his chart labeled him as three years old, I also consider it his eleventh birthday. Frankie was actually an early Valentine’s Day gift for my wife in 2014. she wanted a cat instead of jewelry that year. Rose’s previous cat, Puck, became my cat as did Frankie, eventually, which is why we got Floki but I’m getting ahead of myself.

You can read about Frankie’s adoption here. I also posted several photos of Frankie in two posts three years later. See the first one here. I won’t repeat those here but I do want to show some newer photos of Frankie as well as one photo from day one that I forgot about.

Here is Frankie on his first day with a blanket in his mouth.

I thought that habit developed later.

Here he is in 2017 on one of his walks that he loves.

cat looking up tree

Here he is with Floki enjoying the catio we built at a previous home in 2018, days before Puck died.

cute cats on catio

Here he is after one of his many escapes. He uses vehicles to make it difficult for me to catch him. If I get close, he simply backs up where I can’t reach him.

I always consider Chris to be the touchy-feely cat but Frankie has his moments. Here he is with Puck.

We usually see Frankie stretched out.

But sometimes he likes to curl up into a ball.

We are very happy we adopted Frankie and I think he is happy too.

A Day of Double Remembrance

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The day after Valentine’s day is not a good day for memories. In February of 1999, I was informed that my father, who had been receiving treatment for colon cancer on and off for the previous three and a half years, was not doing well. I was on a plane to Chicago a couple of days later.

I arrived on a Friday and my dad seemed okay then but he was worse on Saturday. Valintine’s day was the next day and I thought about getting him a Valentine’s Day card for him to give to my mom. I didn’t have a car so the thought never turned into action but I regret not making the effort.

When I spoke to my sister that day I thought about telling her to cancel her tickets for next month and get on a plane tomorrow. I thought about it but didn’t do it because I had no idea how long my father had left on this Earth. I regret that too because by Monday he was gone.

Recently my mother brought some old photos to me and I would like to share some of my father, Charles Huss Sr.

Here he is back in the 60s. I’m not sure when this was taken but it is possibly before I was born.

Here he is with my mom in 1973.

Here is our family on Dad’s parent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary on New Years Day, 1986.

Here he is in 1994 at my parent’s second home on Pine Island, near Fort Meyer’s, Florida. I helped him plant that tree a few years earlier after he fished a couple of coconuts out of the water.

Finally, here he is in June of 1997 with my mom at my cousin’s wedding.

In 2018, also on the day after Valentine’s day, we lost our sweet boy Puck. You can read my post about it here. My father just turned 59 and Puck had not reached six years old. Both died way too young.

Puck came to us as a kitten after abbey died in 2012. Chris took to him right away and seemed to act like a father figure to him.

Chris greets Puck on his first day as he comes out from under the bed for food.

When Puck was young he would hang out with my wife while she was getting ready for work. Sometimes he would chase a Qtip and then bring them back to her so she could throw it again.

Puck and Chris became close buddies.

Our cats Chris and Puck napping together.

They also played together but they were never mean to each other.

Eventually, Puck started having health issues and was at the vet a lot. He liked to hide behind me while we waited for the vet.

This is one of the last photos of a happy Puck taken on February 11, 2018, the day we finished construction of their new catio. Sadly, Puck did not have much time to enjoy it.

Thank you for indulging me while I share my memories. Despite the untimely endings, these are good memories.

Bunnies, Bunnies Everywhere

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For Throwback Thursday here is a post from June of 2015. We had lots of rabbits in our old neighborhood but not so much where we live now. Perhaps it is because we have more stray cats here.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

bunny rabbitOur new neighborhood is loaded with bunny rabbits. They tend to stay hidden during the day and come out to eat later in the afternoon and evening. Since we have moved here, we have seen them every day not far from our driveway. For some reason, they never seemed to show up on the other side of the house where our enclosed Florida room is. That is the room where the cats love to hang out because it is all windows on three sides.

That changed the other day when a small, adolescent bunny showed up just under one of the windows on the patio. Puck was the first to notice and he went crazy.

Our cat Puck looking out window

Young bunny rabbit

That was three days ago and we haven’t seen them since on that side of the house. I hope in the future the cats will see these bunnies more often.

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Photo Friday: Classic Chris, Abbey, and Tigger

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I dug into the archives and found a group of photos I took eleven years ago today on January 28, 2011. I couldn’t choose the best one so I decided to post three of them, all taken on the same day.

I’m sure Chris was highly annoying to Abbey and Tigger back then. He was like a child who insisted on getting in bed with Mom and Dad. It did make for some cute photos, though.

Chris Proofing the New Home

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Chris has always been good at getting into things. Here is one example from June of 2015 for Throwback Thursday.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

Before we moved into our new home, Rose told me I needed to do something about the hole under the bathroom sink. She was worried Chris would get under there (which he is good at) and manage to get inside the walls.

I assumed it was a hole like we had in our last home when we moved in. That one was under the kitchen sink. It was an opening that allowed the pipes to come through the wall but it was bigger than necessary. At that time she was worried about bugs getting in so I filled the opening with foam insulation.

Shortly after that I noticed there were pieces of foam scattered around under the sink and then saw a large hole was chewed through the foam. We had a rat! I don’t remember if I realized it at the time but it was sure clear a few…

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Bully Bully

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Yesterday evening Floki was sleeping on the sofa in Chris’s spot. Chris saw that, jumped on the sofa, whacked Floki until he left, and then lied down in his spot. I made a comment that Chris was a bully and my wife agreed.

This morning I was sitting up in bed enjoying my coffee when Frankie got on my lap looking for attention. As usual, when Chris saw that he immediately placed himself between me and Frankie. There was no whapping but Frankie doesn’t want to deal with Chris so he moves away. This was the scene a couple minutes later.

Chris has been this way since day one when we let him out of his carrier and he immediately took over the home, much to the chagrin of our other four cats.