Author Archives: Charles Huss

Our Brush with Hurricane Elsa

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Before I even knew there was a storm brewing, one of my coworkers told me, very concerned, that we were going to get hit by a hurricane. I had not seen the news and had no idea what he was talking about but since he just recently moved to Florida I told him not to worry, we don’t get hit by hurricanes here. I told him of a local Indian legend that says there is something under the ground here in Pinellas County that repels hurricanes.

Indeed, I believe there is no record of Pinellas County Florida ever getting a direct hit by a hurricane, although a few have come close. Several years ago Hurricane Charley was predicted to slam right into Tampa Bay but suddenly, and unexpectedly, veered east and hit the Ft. Meyer’s area. Maybe the legend is true.

Yesterday that same employee asked our boss about the company’s inclement weather policy. I couldn’t help but laugh. Since we are a small business, I pictured that written down in a big manual somewhere.

My wife was concerned too but not about our safety. Her concern was that we might lose power and thus the ability to cool ourselves. She wanted me to make sure I had the batteries charged on our alternative power supplies.

The worst of the storm was supposed to pass by, just offshore, between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. We watched the weather that evening but there was barely a breeze.

We went to bed around 10 p.m. but left the bedroom door open incase the storm got bad and the cats wanted to be with us. Chris showed up around 2 a.m. and proceeded to bother the hell out me by scratching my neck and face. After a while I put him on the floor and lured them all out of the bedroom buy getting out the Stella and Chewy’s. I then went back to bed but realized I forgot to look out the window so I went back out to the kitchen and looked out the window. None of the trees were moving from the wind except a lone palm tree. Not sure what happened to the hurricane. Perhaps it was repelled.

This morning everything looks fine. There is no flooding and no debris that I can see from my house. Now I have to go to work. No excuses today.

Photo Friday: Classic Holly

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Here is my sister-in-law’s cat, Holly, from ten years ago today. Holly was the original bad cat and my wife and I loved watching her antics. Being naughty can be quite entertaining. Before adopting Chris we would joke that we wanted to take her home but we knew that Felice would never part with her.

Chris was like a male version of Holly, perhaps even a little more naughty, but Chris eventually became overweight and his naughtiness died down a bit while Holly is about fifteen now and can still hold her own in the bad cat category.

A Healthy Alternative to Cat Treats

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Here is a post from early 2015 for Throwback Thursday. A few things have changed since this post, like I now prefer Rawz over Blue Buffalo, but I still give them Stella and Chewy’s as treats and they have not grown tired of it.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

If your cats are like mine, they love their cat treats. For years I was buying very small packages of treats for three to four dollars each to help bring a little happiness to my furry friends. I’ve also known that they were not exactly a healthy food for my cats but I figured the small amount once or twice a day wouldn’t hurt them.

I have since changed my thinking. For several years I have been learning about natural health for humans and have tried to apply some of that knowledge to our cats. It has been a slow process. I spent a few years buying frozen, raw food and then struggling to get them to eat it. My plan is to buy a meat grinder and make it myself but I’m not sure that will be any more successful. In the meantime, I feed them a quality, grain-free canned…

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Photo Friday: The Moth Hunter

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Our house is relatively free of bugs partly because we have cats. Chris used to be a great bug catcher but now the duty is performed quite well by Floki. Here he is waiting patiently for a moth to make a mistake.

I don’t think he got the moth that time but I didn’t see it after that so he probably got it after we went to bed. Does anyone else have good bug hunters living with you?

Floki Loves Chris

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Since adopting Chris, no cat has gone to him for attention until we adopted Floki. I have always seen Chris seeking attention from others but not the other way around. Puck may have occasionally gone to Chris but not enough to be memorable.

It makes me feel good now to see Floki seeking attention from Chris. I probably shouldn’t be thinking of this in human terms but I imagine sending a child to school but that child has a hard time making friends. Then a new student shows up with a funny Viking name that wants to be your child’s friend. I think any parent would be happy about that, assuming the new child is not a psycho. Floki may be a little weird sometimes but he certainly is not a psycho.

Frankie’s Making Biscuits

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For Throwback Thursday here is Frankie with his blankie in January 2015. He still does this to this day and is a hoot to see.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

Frankie has this very cute habit of holding a blanket in his mouth and kneading. He especially likes our fleece blankets. We have one on the bed in the back bedroom that always seems to be messed up when we get home in the evening. One night we even found the blanket in the living room.

While I was up late on New Year’s Eve, I noticed Frankie was making biscuits on the bed. I don’t know how long he was doing it before I saw him but I recorded him for over ten minutes after I noticed him. Here is a shortened version of that video.

We call it “marching” in our house but most people call it “making biscuits,” “kneading,” “treading” or some variation. What do you call it?

Related posts:

Meet Frankie, Our Newest Addition
The Woobie
Photo Friday: Making Biscuits

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Another Scare From Frankie

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Frankie is like the child who keeps his parents on edge by constantly participating in risky or foolish behavior. This time it happened Thursday evening while I was in the kitchen.

I had a pot of corn-on-the-cob boiling on the stove when Frankie suddenly developed the zoomies. He came barreling into the kitchen, jumped on the small ledge between the stove and the refrigerator, pushed the pot over several inches, and then quickly jumped down.

I took the photo below a short time later. The stove was off when the picture was taken but imagine a red hot burner and think of where Frankie’s right paw might have landed for him to hit the pot hard enough to push it across half the burner.

I, of course, feared that he might have seriously burned his paw so I quickly picked him up and held him so my wife could examine it. She saw nothing wrong. Nevertheless, I watched him for a while but he did not seem bothered by it so I decided he got off lucky this time.

My real concern is what is he going to do next to scare us? How am I ever going to cook again without worrying about where Frankie is and what he is doing? Can anyone relate to this?