Author Archives: Charles Huss

Office Cat

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My wife is in charge of several apartment communities in Florida, Virginia, and West Virginia. One of the closer ones to our house is about fifty miles away. The manager there told Rose about a friendly stray cat that started hanging around the office. They decided to help the cat by allowing it to come into the office. Rose ordered several supplies for him on Chewy, including a litter box, litter, food, and toys. She visited the property last Wednesday and sent me these photos.

They named the cat “Gato” which is essentially the same as naming him “Cat.” I don’t think Gato cares what he is called, he is just happy to have people to love on him.

He comes and goes during the day, taking advantage of the many people who open the door for him. At night, he stays inside and someone comes to take care of him on the weekend.

One of the maintenance guys from the property came to our house on Saturday to help install two new windows in our house and I give him one of our carriers so they could take him in to be neutered.

From what I hear, he is super friendly so he is probably not feral but was someone’s pet at one time. I have seen this several times before and wonder how they become separated from their humans. I know at apartment complexes people sometimes move out and leave their cats behind. Sometimes they leave them inside an apartment with no food and water. I would like to think humanity is better than that and most strays end up on the streets for innocent reasons.

Berry the One-Eyed Wonder Cat

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Okay, maybe Berry is not really a wonder cat but he is quite the love bug. Barry had one eye removed a week ago and the last time I looked he was still available for adoption. If you live in the Tampa Bay area you can’t go wrong with such a loving cat.

Berry is available for adoption at the SPCA in Largo, Florida. Check out their listings for cats here. If he is no longer on the list that means he was probably adopted.

My First Day Back at the Shelter

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I mostly stopped volunteering when I got my lastest job early in the year. It was supposed to be part-time, about twenty hours a week, but the other part-time employee quit and it quickly turned into about thirty-five hours a week. I did manage to squeeze in a day here and there but then we went to West Virginia for two months.

Things have slowed down at work lately and it seems I might be able to consistently get Fridays off so I signed up for a shift last Friday. When I got there I noticed things had not changed much. Cats still needed homes and people still came around looking for cats

There were a fair number of kittens as well as adults cats. It seemed there were a lot of very friendly black cats that day.

There was also a Siamese kitten there.

I texted Rose his photo and she wanted me to adopt him but several minutes later someone came in with his paperwork wanting to adopt him. When a person wants to adopt a cat they take the cat’s paperwork to the adoption office. I imagine these people grabbed his paperwork so nobody else would take him and then wondered around the shelter in case they found a better option.

The Siamese was part of a group of kittens that were very cute and funny. I learned later they were all from the same litter even though only one was Siamese. I know a litter could be from more than one father so maybe that was the case.

While I was standing outside the cage talking to someone, one of the kittens climbed up the door and poked me in the back to get my attention.

Later I saw the same black kitten climb up the door but this time he had a copycat.

The Siamese cat climbed all the way to the top of the door.

I was worried he might hurt himself jumping down from that hight but I had to wait for him to get above the door so I could open it. Once inside I pulled the bench over to stand on and then had a hard time separating the cat from the cage.

The friendliest cat in the shelter and the one I most wanted to bring home was Berry.

Berry had a bad eye infection that the vets could not get under control so they had to remove his eye on Monday. I felt so bad because he was so very much in need of attention. I opened his cage a few times to pet him and he was just all over me. I have a video that I will try to post soon.

Alas, as much as we want to save them all it is just not realistic to think we can adopt another cat, especially since we already have two more than we are suppose to have.

Floki’s Vet Visit

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Floki had a vet appointment yesterday morning so we trapped him in the cats’ room and Rose and I worked together to catch him and put him in his carrier. I then put him in the car and drove him to the vet.

When I got to the vet I had to call them so someone could come out to get Floki. They are still not allowing people in the office. I think they are dragging out this pandemic because keeping people out is easier for them. They are not alone. Many businesses have cut customer service because they save money and Covid gives them the perfect excuse. Have you called a large business lately and been told the wait time is forty-five minutes or longer? Most of these people work from home now so there is no excuse.

As far as vets are concerned, I think it is important for people to go into the exam room with their pet. Imagine a parent being forced to wait in the car at the pediatrician’s office. In order to get the full picture of what is going on, you need to be there during the exam. It is also important for your pet to know you are there. Most will be very nervous that a stranger is poking and prodding them and need reassurance from their parent. I may consider changing vets if this continues.

Floki was there for three reasons. First, he needed to get his nails trimmed. It is impossible for us to trim them because he is such a squirmy little bugger but the vet techs can do it. He is good for them for some reason.

Second, he has been having trouble with his ears lately so they cleaned them and informed me he had an infection. They wanted to take a sample to test what kind of infection it was so I agreed. They then gave me a bottle of medicine with instructions to put five drops in each ear every day. Since we can’t even clip his nails, I have no idea how we are going to put medicine in his ears. Chris also has a recurring ear infection and it is hard enough putting drops in his ears, Floki is ten times harder.

Lastly, they checked him for fleas. The last time he got flea medication he was sick for three days. The plan was to give him a kitten dose of another flea medication if he had fleas and no medication if he did not have fleas. Fortunately, he did not have fleas.

After I brought Floki home and let him out of his carrier, Frankie got inside of it.

He went in through the top and I have no idea how he managed to get under the flap.

As I write this on Friday evening we have yet to attempt to put medicine in Floki’s ears. Hopefully, I won’t have to report a few new scars on my next post.

Update: We tried to put the medication in Floki’s ears last night. He was on the dining room table and I held him by the scruff while Rose attempted to put five drops in each ear. She got two drops in one ear before his struggling became too intense and I lost my grip. I grabbed him again and tried to hold him down but he managed to roll over on his side and started to kick with his back feet. I let him go at that point to prevent serious injury. I now worry that a daily struggle like that will cause Floki to stop trusting us.

Two Cats, One Box

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Here is a post from six and a half years ago for Throwback Thursday. It is a video of Frankie and Chris taking turns playing in a box, with a not so friendly ending.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

I used to be very dedicated to posting new pictures on Flickr but I seem to be so busy lately that I just stopped doing it. This morning I realized that the last photos I posted were from nine months ago. I decided to start posting again and as I was going my photos I found this video of Chris and Frankie playing in a box. I hope you enjoy.

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A Beautiful Day for Smelling

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The weather has been pretty nice here lately so I opened one of the windows in the cats’ room. They can see fine with shut windows but having one open, even a crack, lets all the smells in. Opening it further would only risk someone pushing out the screen.

I missed a good picture of Frankie standing on the edge of the litter box so he could stick his nose out the window. Chris was napping in the living room and never noticed it.

Not a Good Time to Nap

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Frankie was being quite the pest yesterday and Rose asked me to put some food down for the cats, but I knew it wasn’t food he was looking for. I put my shoes on and announced that I was going to take Frankie for a walk. As I was heading into the bedroom, Rose was hyping Frankie up by loudly saying, “Are you gonna go outside, Frankie? Are you gonna go outside?” This, of course, got Frankie all excited and he followed me into the bedroom, meowing up a storm. When I pulled the harness out of my drawer, he really got excited.

As soon as Frankie gets outside the excitement goes away and he becomes very focused. After taking time to smell the air we walked across the street and stopped to eat some grass, or whatever this is.

We then found a nice patch of ground to stretch out and get some sun.

Then a little shade was in order.

I stood there for a long time waiting for Frankie to decide what he wanted to do. To my surprise, he fell asleep.

I hated to wake him up but I couldn’t just stand there in the sun and wait for his nap to be over. I knelt down and very gently petted him. That woke him up and he hissed at me and scratched my hand, making it bleed in three places.

I then picked him up and brought him home. He had been out for about forty-five minutes and Chris was home waiting for his turn. Surprisingly, Frankie let me carry him home without giving me a hard time.

When we got home, I let Chris out and stayed with him. He decided to eat some grass as soon as he got outside.

He then spent some time in the sun.

After fifteen minutes I decided that I should go in and wash the cut on my hand. I picked Chris up and he decided to turn around as I was lifting him up. I think he planned on climbing onto my shoulders but he just ended up putting a gash in my stomach. Well, at least I was going in to clean one wound so what’s one more?