Author Archives: Charles Huss

The Second Most Needy Cat in the House

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I always talk about how needy Chris is but Frankie is almost as needy. He is probably on my lap about half as much as Chris is but some of that difference is because when Chris sees Frankie on my lap he gets on my lap too and Frankie usually gets off, but not always.

What Frankie does that Chris doesn’t do is follow me around the house like a little puppy dog. Sometimes he even follows me in the bathroom.

If I close the bathroom door, he wants in even more.

The following seems to happen more often in our West Virginia home, which is significantly bigger than our Florida home. Sometimes I will go upstairs for something and then come right back down. I feel a little bad because then Frankie follows me up the stairs and then back down again. Chris is the one that needs the exercise, not Frankie.

You may recall this video I posted last January about our house. If you pay attention you can see Frankie following me around for a good portion of the inside tour. It is a 360 degree video so you need to move it around to see Frankie.

I should be clear that I’m not complaining. It is nice to be needed and Frankie is far less painful than Chris in his neediness.

Chris Almost Made It

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Sunday night, shortly after we went to bed, Chris started his usual crying and scratching at the bedroom door. This time was worse than usual and he would not stop. After about a half hour I gave up and, over the protests of my wife, let him in.

He actually did pretty well. He bothered me a little but I put him down at my side, away from my face, and he stayed there for a long time. I think he bothered me one more time but I again put him down and he again stayed.

Some time between 3 and 4 a.m. my wife got up and said she couldn’t sleep because of Chris. “He’s behaving,” I said. “How is he keeping you awake?”

“You guys are hogging the sheets and taking up the entire bed,” she said before getting up and going downstairs.

My mind went back to the time before Chris when four to five cats would sleep on the bed next to me and that didn’t cause a problem for Rose. On top of that, I’m pretty sure we had a queen bed back then instead of the king we have now.

Rose came back to bed around 4:45 and about five minutes later Chris started bothering me but this time I could not get him to stop. If it was 5 a.m. I would have considered it too late to go back to sleep and got up. That would have meant that Chris made it through an entire night in our room. Instead, I put him out and closed the door ten minutes shy of the goal.

I managed to sleep almost an additional hour before Chris started scratching and howling at the door. Some day I will get eight hours of sleep. Perhaps when we take our vacation a year from now.

Frankie’s House is Back

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When we came to West Virginia we left Chris and Floki’s Cardboard Cat Homes at our Florida home, but we brought Frankie’s house with us. He really liked lying on top of it so I thought he would enjoy it here too.

I took it apart and when we got to our home here I put it on a shelf, thinking I would put it together as soon as I finished more important things. By the time those important things were done I just forgot about it until my wife reminded me.

I put it together Sunday afternoon while the cats were lounging on the catio and then brought it out there and set it down near Frankie. He gave it a few sniffs and seemed interested for about five seconds.

That is when a stray cat decided to walk past us within inches of the screen. It was like he, or she, owned the place. Frankie immediately ran to the screen and followed while the cat walked around the catio and into the neighbor’s yard. Neither cat made a sound, which surprised me. Perhaps it was a female and the hissing and growling are reserved for males. I don’t know how that works.

In any case, we brought the cats inside shortly after that and then I brought the house into the living room where Chris and Floki took an interest in it.

Later, when I sat down to write this post, Frankie lied down on top of the house, just like he used to do.

I guess there’s no place like home, even if it is cardboard.

Photo Friday: 1976

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When my Mom came to visit she brought a treasure trove of old photographs. I have been scanning them but I left my good scanner in Florida and even with the good scanner it is time consuming. With my current scanner I have to be very selective about which pictures I choose to scan. I chose this picture because I have very fond memories of our dog, Tascha, and I have very few photos of her. This brings back good memories.

This is a photo of Tascha, Me, and my brother Matt, taken in May, 1976. My dad brought Tascha home in April after she was found wandering near a home of one of his friends. She was the best dog I ever had and passed away in April of 1985, almost exactly ten years after we got her.

The Best of Bad Cat Chris, Now on Video

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For throwback Thursday, here is a post I did in March, 2015 showing a “best of” video. It is fairly long because there was too much good stuff to exclude. You might have to click through to the original post to see the video.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

I just finished putting together a compilation of some of my favorite Bad Cat Chris videos. I hope you enjoy, and please check out Chris’s YouTube channel and subscribe to be the first to see the latest videos from this crazy household.

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Stray Kittens

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In a recent post I talked about a stray kitten that came up to our catio door to check us out. This kitten was not afraid of people and sniffed my hand when I put it up to the screen. I also said I thought I saw another kitten but I wasn’t sure. Now I am sure, or at least pretty sure. There seems to be two kittens that hang out together. These pictures were taken through my front door window yesterday morning. Please forgive the less-than-great quality.

I believe the one on the right is the one that came up to the screen the other day and the girl on the left is probably the one I thought I saw first that evening.

I want to help them. I have a desire to go out with food and maybe take them in and get them fixed or whatever. Unfortunately, I know nothing about them. I do know that the people behind us are taking care of several strays and these two are probably part of that group. There are other people nearby that also help. Perhaps these cats are already fixed or soon will be. Since we are only here temporarily, I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. I also don’t want to start feeding cats only to stop at the end of next month.