We adopted Chris in late 2009 from a shelter named Sav-R-Cats in Surfside, South Carolina (near Myrtle Beach). I met Chris while I was volunteering for Sav-R-Cats and worked with Shirley and Linda who are not only still there, but still keep up with Chris and his shenanigans. They decided to send Chris, Frankie and Puck a gift which arrived the other day.
Frankie and Puck were interested right away, Chris was off doing his own thing and was not aware something new was in the house. As soon as I opened it, the two of them were inspecting the contents.
Soon Chris sensed something was up and was there in an instant to lend a paw in the inspection process.
Even the box itself was thoroughly checked out.
Inside the box were some lovely, handmade blankets, two with a gold cat and one with a black cat. One each…
I wrote a post last month about the many problems we encountered in planning for a trip back to West Virginia. My wife wanted me to trade my electric Nissan Leaf for a larger vehical, like a mini van. I did not want to give up my Leaf, which was my favorite car ever, but I knew we needed to do something different. I looked into renting a vehicle but since the pandemic, there is a shortage of vehicles and the rental car companies no longer rent cars for one-way trips out of state. That same shortage also caused used cars to be more expensive. I considered a new vehicle but I just didn’t want an expensive car payment.
I eventually found a 2008 Nissan Titan pickup truck with only 19,000 miles on it. I probably paid more then it was worth a year earlier but beggars can’t be choosers and it was a better price than lesser vehicles that were a few years newer. Plus, it has plenty of room for the cats and all the stuff we needed to bring.
On our last trip I bought two crates that were as big as the limits of my wife’s convertible would allow. The smaller crate was 22L x 13W x 16H and we put Frankie in that one. The bigger crate was 24L x 18W x 20H and Floki and Chris went in that one.
There is more room in the back of the truck so I decided to replace the smaller crate with a soft, collapsible crate that is 30L x 20W x 19H (Please note that Amazon links will earn me a small percentage if you make a purchase). We plan on putting Chris and Floki together again and will put Frankie in the larger, wire crate. We decide on the first trip that Chris and Floki would travel better together than either one of them with Frankie.
When the crate arrived the cats were immediately interested in it.
It was easy to put together but would have been even easier without cats in it.
Once together it seemed like it would be a good fit for Chris and Floki.
Chris decided he liked being inside of it.
Frankie decided he liked being on top of it.
Not to be outdone, Chris had to get on top of it too. I was impressed that it stood up to his weight.
After I put it together and after Chris got out of it I put the two crates in the back of the truck to make sure they both fit okay.
I then ordered a pad that was a perfect fit for the inside of it.
We will be leaving on Friday morning. I look forward to being there but I do not look forward to the trip.
Floki update: I am writing this on Tuesday evening for a Wednesday morning post. As of now Floki seems better. He had a bad reaction on Saturday morning either to the vet cleaning his ears or the flea medication we asked them to put on. He hid under the bed for three days but this morning he was out eating breakfast. He went back under the bed briefly but spent the rest of the day acting like a normal kitty.
Yesterday morning, Saturday, my wife and I brought Floki to the vet. It was nothing serious but we wanted his nails trimmed and his ears checked. The last time they cleaned his ears because they were dirty and Rose thought they needed cleaning again.
Rose also wanted them to apply his flea medication that we had but couldn’t put it on him for the same reason we can’t clip his nails or clean his ears. He is a tornado in a cat’s body.
Our vet still makes the humans wait in the car which is something I do not like because I think it is important for the pet’s human to be there for psychological comfort and because it is easier to know what is going on if you are in the exam room.
When the vet tech brought out Floki, she mentioned that his ears were dirty again when he came in and he might have to shake some remaining fluid out of his ears from the cleaning.
When we got him home, he immediately ran under the bed. I figured he would hide for a little while even though there was no logical reason we would bring him home just to catch him again.
Later that day Rose mentioned she saw Floki briefly and watched him lose his balance and fell down. He then went behind the sofa to hide. Later he was back under the bed again. When he didn’t come out for their late afternoon meal, we started to get concerned.
I put his food next to the bed but by late evening he still hadn’t eaten anything so I picked it up. I then sat in the bedroom for a while with Rose. We usually sit on the bed and wind down before going to bed. The cats often come in during that time and hang out with us. Since we have to close our bedroom door at night because of Chris, we want to give them that time.
We still had not seen Floki and were worried so I looked under the bed and he was not there. I checked behind the sofa and in the Florida room but no Floki. I eventually found him hiding in the dining room and started petting him. He put up with me for thirty seconds and walked quickly away, falling over once as he went. He ended up back under the bed.
Earlier, Rose thought the dizziness was due to the ear cleaning but I suggested that maybe it was a side effect of the flea medication. At first she discounted my idea, but the fact that he was dizzy so many hours later made her look up the side effects of flea medication and found that one of them was dizziness that could last up to 72 hours.
I have always hated putting flea medication on our cats because it is a poison but Rose hates fleas, which is understandable. I try to push out the treatment as long as possible but sometimes, like recently, one of the cats is affected by fleas and we have no choice but to apply it.
We left our door open last night hoping Floki would come in our bedroom but as soon as we tried to go to sleep, Chris was on the bed digging his nails in my face so we had to kick them all out.
It is now 1:30 on Sunday afternoon and Floki is not only still under the bed, he has worked his way up inside the box spring. It is concerning and we will have to call the vet on Monday if he doesn’t come out.
Has anyone else had these issues with flea medication? The brand we use is called Cheristin.
Here is a post from February 2015 for Throwback Thursday. Those were the days. Chris is more interested in eating grass than hunting lizards these days.
Sunday was a beautiful day so we decided to put the harness on Frankie and let him outside. He has been terrible lately with his picking at the screen by the front door. Counting yesterday, he has pulled the entire screen off the window at least five times, three times after I put tape on it to hold it in and once after I put extra tape on it. Rose thinks he was an outside cat and we are being cruel forcing him to stay inside. I understand her concerns but I think we live too close to a busy road for that to be an option. Perhaps if we lived down the road a bit I would consider getting him a collar and letting him out during the day.
I got Rose’s help and let all the cats out the back door on Sunday. I held Frankie’s leash while Rose…
Today is Black Cat Appreciation Day. We no longer have a black cat but I thought this would be a good time to remember the two black cats we did have. We lost both at a relatively young age.
Flash was the brother to Tigger.
We adopted both of them around September of 2005.
Abbey and Flash
Sadly, Flash died around April of 2010. He was around for a few months after we adopted Chris but I do not believe I have a photo of the two of them together.
We adopted Puck as a kitten on September 15, 2012. He was the first cat we adopted after I started this blog.
Chris greets Puck as he comes out for food.Frankie and Puck
Puck was mild-mannered and everyone liked him.
Puck and Chris
Puck had a lot of problems with crystals in his urine and was often at the vet.
Sadly, he died in February, 2018, on the nineteenth anniversary of my father’s death.
Who else has, or had, a black cat? Who wants a black cat?
Here is a photo of Chris eleven years ago tomorrow. He was quite the player back then. I believe he threw his mouse and it landed in this large basket. He then went in to retrieve it.
We got up Sunday morning and discovered the window screen near the front door was tore to shreds at the corner near the door. We knew right away it was Frankie because he “picks” at the screen when he wants to go outside, and he wants to go outside a lot lately. It doesn’t help that he is an inside kitty and is not allowed outside because, unlike Chris, he is a runner.
Frankie has been picking at the screen for months and has not caused more damage than a couple of small holes, this seemed like an act of desperation. I made a mental note to try to put the harness and leash on him again. Last time he put up quite a fight and it was very difficult to get it on him. It is also just plain difficult to put on which may be part of the…
Last week I was contacted by someone from Cardboard Cat Homes and asked if I would do a review. He told me I could have my cat’s name printed on the box, which I thought was pretty cool. I asked if he could squeeze three names on the box and his reply was that he would send me three boxes. I couldn’t argue with that. To be clear, I did get the boxes at no cost to me but I was not compensated in any other way. The opinions written here are my own and that of my cats.
When the box arrived on Thursday Frankie was immediately interested.
When I opened the box I saw there was catnip in it which I thought explained his interest but he seemed to ignore the catnip packages.
I decided to put one together and save the other two for Friday and Saturday. That way there would be renewed excitement. The first one I opened was the Cat Condo. That one had Frankie’s name on it which was great for reasons you will see later. I read the directions on it but I am terrible with assembly directions and my mind just glazed over.
I thought the picture was clear but some of the pieces were hard to identify. At first I thought maybe stamping numbers on the pieces would be helpful but then I realized that I could easily figure it out from the picture alone so that is what I did and found it to be really easy to put together.
Of course, everyone was interested in what I was doing.
When it was done, Frankie had to test the sturdiness of it.
It met with his approval so I decided to put a towel on the top and inside to see what happened.
Suddenly Frankie had a new favorite place to hang out and Floki liked it too.
Then Chris discovered how great it was.
I was busy Friday and did not put the second cat house together that day but Frankie continued to enjoy hanging out on top of his cat condo. The workout bench was his favorite place to nap but he completely forgot about that.
He still liked it on Saturday.
Saturday is when I put the next cat house together. This one was called “Kitty House” and is probably the best looking one. It was a little more complicated than the first but still fairly simple.
This one had Floki’s name on it and coincidently it was he who was most interested at first.
Floki’s interest waned but once I was finished, Frankie became interested.
Unlike Frankie’s condo, this one has two doors. What it does not have is enough room on the roof for a cat to nap. I guess it would depend on whether you cat likes to sleep inside or outside.
Sunday I put together Chris’s “Cat Castle.” It is fitting that one has his name on it because Chris thinks he is king around here.
I only got it halfway put together when Chris decided to get inside of it. That made assembly more difficult.
I managed to get it mostly put together but Chris’s twenty pound heft was pushing against the side and it was too difficult to finish snapping it together, so I just decided to wait for him to get out.
There was a bit of a cat fight while I waited. Apparently Chris was defending his castle.
Eventually he got out and I was able to finish construction before he got back in again.
I think Chris is too heavy and he is pushing the sides out. I suppose it doesn’t matter since it seems to be holding together. I just hope he doesn’t try to jump on top of it while it is apart like it is here. He has not yet tried to get on top of any of the houses so I don’t know how well they would handle a twenty pound cat. They do seem perfectly capable of handling a twelve pound cat though.
As I write this post Frankie is still enjoying hanging out on his condo where his association has no code of decency.
So what do you think? Is this something your cat might like?
Update: I forgot to mention that the company also donates to pet shelters. Here is a line from their website: To give back to our feline community we work closely with shelters, aiming to donate supplies and goodies to at least one shelter for every five orders we receive.
Frankie and Puck were interested right away, Chris was off doing his own thing and was not aware something new was in the house. As soon as I opened it, the two of them were inspecting the contents.
I got Rose’s help and let all the cats out the back door on Sunday. I held Frankie’s leash while Rose…
Bad Cat Chris 