A couple of friends of ours from Florida, Nancy and Joe, visited us over the weekend. They recently bought a Winnabego and had taken it on the road. On their return to Florida, we were not too much out of the way so they stopped here for a couple af days.
On Saturday, while we were sitting at the dining room table, Nancy was cold so Rose offered her the blanket that she keeps on the couch. The same blanket that Chris loves to sleep on because it is very soft.
While she was sitting there with the blanket over her lags, Chris tried to reclaim the blanket by lying on her feet.
He actually took a nap there on her feet. I guess she will think next time about who’s blanket she decides to steal.
I was at the supermaket yesterday morning when Rose called me. “Frankie got out!” she said. “And I’m locked out of the house with no shoes on.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m coming home right now.”
I quickly checked out with what I was able to get and went home. When I arived I saw nobody at first but then saw Rose and the pest control guy crossing the street. The guy was here to do an annual termite inspection and Frankie got out when Rose answered the door.
The man was carrying a fishing net and Rose pointed and said “Frankie is under that truck. As soon as we approached, Frankie ran out.
He ended up under a van a couple of houses down so I asked the guy to push at Frankie with his net. I hoped he would come out on my end but he shot out the front and ended up back under the pest control guy’s truck.
From there he went into the neighbors back yard and was about to jump the fence into our yard but changed his mind and skirted past me. After a little more chasing he ended up in front of our house too pooped to care anymore. I held my hand out and he gave it a good sniff while I move in close enough to grab him.
My biggest worry is that he is unfamiliar with the area. I have been lazy and have not taken him for a walk since he seems very content to just hang out on the catio. With one week more here I don’t think I will worry about walkling him here but once we get back to Florida I will have to do that.
We went to bed Monday night with our thermostat set to cool. Tuesday morning we woke up to an outside temperature of 39 degrees Fahrenheit. I didn’t notice what the temperature was inside the house but it was pretty cool. It is not very often that we see all three cats sleeping together like this. I think this was an attempt to stay warm.
My wife and I were on the catio with the cats yesterday afternoon when we heard the sound of a cat crying. I saw that there was a kitten in a tree next door so Rose started talking to the kitten. Upon hearing her voice, the kitten decided get down from the tree and come visit us.
Unlike the last two visits from cats, this one was not tolerated very well by Frankie.
I had to get up and stop Frankie from tearing at the screens because I was worried he might get through and attack the kitten. I guessed this kitten was a male because of Frankie’s attitude compared to the last two cats.
Frankie did settle down a little bit when he knew I didn’t like what he was doing. There was a little hissing and growling but I have heard much worse. Perhaps because he was a kitten he wasn’t much of a threat.
He was indeed a male because the neighbor came out and we talked to her about him. Rose asked if that was her cat and she said “It looks like he will be.” She had already given him a name like Sugar Plum or something with sugar in it. She was calling his name trying to get him to come back to her side of the yard because she didn’t want him to annoy our cats. Like a typical cat he didn’t pay much attention to her but he did eventually listen and went through the hole in the fence back to his side.
It was very good to know that at least one of the stray cats around here is going to have a home.
Some early readers may remember Abbey. All of my pets have been special in one way or another and I would hate to pick favorites but Abbey was pretty close to the top. She suffered liver failure shortly after I started this blog and slowly lost weight. At first the reduced weight actully made her more active. I was concerned that she had gone from fat to normal but she was eating and jumping on things that she stopped jumping on when she got heavy.
Abbey
I should have been more concered but I’m not sure if it would have mattered. When we finally got the diagnosis she still seemed healthy. I did not want to take away any part of her life until it was clear that she was actually suffering. That happened in October of that year, 2012.
But this post is not about the sad times, I want to talk about one of the funnier episodes involving Abbey.
One day my wife and I were sitting on the sofa wile Abbey lied on my lap, which she did quite often. We were talking about something, which I don’t remember, but it must have been a hot topic because Rose had raised he voice almost to a yell. We were not arguing but it must have sounded that way to Abbey because she got off my lap and bit Rose in the arm. She didn’t bite her hard. It was more of a warning bite.
We quickly surmised that Abbey did not want Rose to yell at me. She was acting as my protector. As an experiment, Rose started yelling at me while wagging her finger. Abbey quickly got up and bit her again.
I must admit, it feels good to have someone looking out for me. It takes me back to my youth and my dog, Tascha. I remember my dad’s friend, Jack, was teasing Tascha by pretending to want to grab my arm. He would move his hand closer to me and Tascha would growl. He would back off and then do it again. By about the fourth time Tascha just bit him. Served him right for teasing a Doberman.
Every morning Frankie quickly eats half his food and then tries to convince me to let him out on the catio. The other morning Floki saw him there not paying attention and decided to pounce.
My wife works from home most days but sometimes she does what she calls a “site visit.” It is when she spends the day at one of her properties to make sure everything is being done correctly and to help out. She did a site visit at the property here in town the other day and asked me to drive her so I could have the truck if I needed to go anywhere.
While she was gone Frankie and Floki were enjoying the beautiful day on the catio while Chris was upstairs on the bed. I felt bad that he was missing out and since he has been having trouble going up and down the stairs I carried him down.
When Rose was ready to be picked up I didn’t want to leave with the cats out on the catio so I brought them in. When we got home Rose pointed out that Frankie was watching us from the window upstairs .
When we got inside we saw Frankie and Floki but no Chris. I went upstairs and found Chris on the perch looking out the window. So it was Chris and not Frankie up there.
I have still carried Chris up and down since then but he has also surprised me several times but going up and down on his own. My wife decided to watch one of her girly shows Friday evening so I left Chris on the sofa with Rose and came upstairs to write this post. A few minutes later Chris joined me on the bed.
I did receive the joint support Chews the other day but he was already improving before then. I did have my doubts about his problem being arthritis because of the suddenness of it and now I think maybe he injured his paw.
Of course it could be a little of both. With his old age and added weight jumping down could be hard on him. I don’t know. I’m just glad he is a little better.
Bad Cat Chris 