Author Archives: Charles Huss

Happy Father’s Day

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Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s reading this.

In our house, as far as our cat’s are concerned, Chris is like the father figure, especially to Floki.

My father passed away in 1999, but I still miss him. Here he is with his father in 1988.

While it is sad that my dad was gone before his time, there is also reason to celebrate because my son is celebrating his first Father’s Day as a new dad.

Photo Friday: Balcony Cats

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My wife was promoted to property manager in 2009 and transferred to Myrtle Beach to run a property there. We got a third-floor apartment at the back of the property. If I remember correctly she wanted to be out of the way so most residents wouldnt know where we lived.

I rigged screening around the balcony railing with double-sided tape so the cats could go outside without the temptation to jump down. I also attached screening to long pieces of wood and hung them from the top of the balcony so the cats couldn’t jump onto the railing and possibly hurt themselves by falling off. That screening was then rolled up when not in use so nobody would notice it was there.

Bottom to top: Tigger, Alex and Abbey

All of these photos were taken almost ten years ago on June 21, 2010 using a digital camera that was outdated even for the time, so forgive the quality.

Abbey

The pool noodles were added after we adopted Chris because he was able to squeeze his body under the railing and jump down from the third floor. (see here).

Chris and Tigger
Tigger and Alex

So what do you think of our little trip to the past?

Patio Life

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This is from 2014 for Throwback Thursday. Back then we had a nice patio for the cats. Hopefully, someday we will again.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

Here on the west coast of Florida, it gets pretty hot in the summer. It seems almost every afternoon the temperature is at or near 95 degrees Fahrenheit. There is also a high humidity in the summer that makes being outside during midday quite unpleasant. We try to limit our outdoor activities to the mornings or late afternoons.

Chris and Puck feel that way too. Often they use that time to nap on the sofa or, in Chris’s case, find a human to bother. Frankie is different. I often look out the window to see him napping on the patio during the hottest part of the afternoon. He must be part camel or something because he spends much of his day outside in the heat and does not seem to be bothered by it in the least. Perhaps he still retains some of the traits of his distant ancestor, the African Wildcat.

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The Battle for Fort Box

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I made a new Fort Box for the cats. This time I did not put a hole on the top because it just invites conflict. Instead, I put an entrance hole in the front and a smaller escape hatch on the side near the back. I also put several small peepholes around the perimeter so that the occupant could see if an enemy was approaching.

Naturally, Chris took over the fort which left Frankie on the outside planning his attack strategy.

After a successful defense of the fort, peace was restored in the kingdom . . . for now.

Everybody was Kung Fur Fighting

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Here is a post from September 2014 for Throwback Thursday. Thankfully, after six years, there is far less fighting now but it still happens.

Charles Huss's avatarBad Cat Chris

I worry about my cats sometimes. I worry that one cat is going to seriously injure another, or worse, in a knocked-down, dragged-out, no-holds-barred fight. In some ways though, things are getting better. The fights are less frequent and Chris seems to be making an effort  to make friends with Frankie. In other ways, things seem worse. When they do fight it is intense and at least one cat ends up doing the cat equivalent of “screaming like a little girl.” That cat is usually Chris.

I heard them fighting last night after we went to bed and again very early this morning. When I got up and went into the living room I saw something that shocked me.

Let’s back up a little. The problems started when we adopted Frankie. Don’t get me wrong. Frankie is a wonderful cat and I really enjoy having him here, but we failed to consider…

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Eighth Blogiversary

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When I wrote the introduction to this blog eight years ago, I hoped I would last a year. I did not imagine I would still be doing this eight years later. Blogging does take quite a commitment with few rewards other than the opportunity to meet many like-minded people and the chance to let our creativity out into the world. Those are good things but they don’t put food on the table so I can understand why people quit. I, too, have quit other blogs I started.

My wife got me started in blogging a couple of weeks before I started Bad Cat Chris. She was the property manager at a large apartment community where a rooster appeared one day and decided to stay. Rose thought it would be good PR for the community if I would write a blog about it. I knew nothing about blogging so I thought the easiest thing to do would be to start a blog at Blogger.com, so I signed up for one and called it Romeo Rooster.

I discovered I liked blogging and decided to start another blog about Chris because he is such an unusual cat, but after doing some research I decided to use WordPress.com for this blog. Around the same time, I bought a recumbent bike so that I could ride to work two or three days a week on a bike that was more comfortable than a traditional bike. I decided to write about that experience too and started a blog called Newly Bent.

Tigger and Chris on my desk with a Newly Bent blog post on the computer screen which has a photo of Chris investigating my bike.

Romeo Rooster did not last a year. By April of the following year, Romeo had disappeared and the blog was over. Newly bent lasted longer. After more than a year I moved it to a self-hosted blog and called it Bent for Life. That lasted another few months but then we moved too far away from work to ride a bike so that blog ended too. I never did move Bad Cat Chris to a self-hosted site and it is still on WordPress.com. I have three other blogs that I have been doing for several years but all of them have been sporadic and I rarely post to any of them these days, although I do want to try to be better about that.

CharlesHuss.com is my personal blog that I use for random thought but I have not posted in over two months. Another blog, JustFurLaughs.com, is a blog where I post animal memes. It’s been two and a half months since I posted there. I don’t have a lot of followers on those blogs, probably for my lack of posts, but Just Fur Laughs Facebook page is doing very well. Those two are self-hosted but I have one more WordPress.com blog at CharlesHuss.wordpress.com. It is where I post some of my photographs. Again, I haven’t kept up with it very well.

So I know first hand that keeping up with a blog is not easy and I respect those who have not only been blogging for years but who also continue to write several times a week. In eight years, I have posted on this blog 1091 times. That is an average of just over 2.6 posts per week. I could do better with more effort but considering everything else that is going on in my life I think I am doing okay. Writing more will probably take the fun out of blogging and it will start feeling like a job.

I enjoy writing and photography and I enjoy conversing with other bloggers and animal lovers so I will probably continue to do this for as long as people are willing to read what I have to say. Hopefully, that will be a long time.

Photo Friday: Frankie Tolerating Chris

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Chris is a very needy cat and always has to be touching someone. He can be quite annoying, especially to Frankie, but Frankie is usually pretty good about tolerating Chris.

“Usually” means about 70% of the time. About 20% of the time Frankie just gets up and leaves. The rest of the time there is hissing and whacking going on.