Author Archives: Charles Huss

Safe and Sound at Our New Home

Since I have no internet and am posting from my phone, I just wanted to let everyone know we arrived at our new home in West Virginia at around 2:00 yesterday afternoon.

We put the cats in the downstairs bedroom and two helpers and I unloaded the truck.

When we were done Rose let the cats out to explore while I was still outside doing something. When I came in I couldn’t find any of the cats. I looked around downstairs and then went upstairs and found Chris at the top of the stairs looking down. We were worried that Chris’s age and weight would keep him from going up the stairs but we were wrong.

It took a while to find Frankie and Floki who were hiding behind the mattress and box spring that was leaning against a wall. I figured Floki would be nervous but was surprised Frankie was such a baby.

After a while everyone was out exploring or relaxing.

After over four hours of unloading and unpacking, we had to go out for dinner and then the grocery store. By the time we got back we were both exhausted and went to bed. We left our door open because we were worried about the cats. Chris was a bit of a pain but not as bad as usual.

This morning everyone was very comfortable with their surroundings.

I did find poop in the tub this morning which is exactly what Chris used to do when we adopted him. It took me years to learn that two litter boxes next to each other solved the problem so I put litter in the second box and need to buy two more for upstairs.

I Survived a Hotel Night With Bad Cat Chris

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Our cats were so happy when we got to the hotel yesterday. Well, okay, once Frankie and Floki decided to remove themselves from under the sofa, then they were happy.

We were happy too. Our trip was extremely unpleasant and way longer than Google predicted. I don’t want to do that ever again and yet, here we go for day two.

We went to bed relatively early last night, before 9:00, but because we were not able to shut the bedroom door, Chris spent the night bothering me. He bothered Rose too but his focus was on preventing me from sleeping.

I don’t know how many times I put Chris off the bed or pushed him to the foot of the bed where Frankie and Floki were quietly behaving. Each time he would stay away for some time between ten seconds and then minutes and then he would be back clawing, scratching, biting or lying on my head.

Not long after 3:00 a.m. Rose decided to get up because she couldn’t sleep. I was so tired I didn’t want to get up with her so she fed the cats hoping that would distract Chris. That worked for about two minutes and then he was back bothering me. After ten minutes I couldn’t take it any longer and put him off the bed ad tried to go back to sleep.

I then heard the sound of a cat digging in the litter box and my wife laughing. Of course I had to know what was so funny so she told me what Chris was doing so I had to turn to see for myself.

I should say that I bought a small, disposable litter box for the trip and then decided it was too small and bought a small non disposable litter box with a small bag of litter. Chris was in the bigger of the two boxes pushing all the litter out and the trying to scoop litter into the box from the smaller box.

Now that I am up Chris decided to take a nap next to me. Why couldn’t he do that last night.

Halfway There

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We made it to our hotel in Columbia, South Carolina at around 5:30. It should have taken seven and a half hours but it actually was closer to ten.

This photo was taken right after Floki discovered he couldn’t jump through the mirror.

We need to leave very early tomorrow so we get to our new home in West Virginia in time to get help unpacking.

West Virginia Here We Come

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We rented a moving truck yesterday and I spent about four hours loading it. When I was mostly done we went back to the U-Haul place and got the car carrier. They quasi helped us but said we had to do it so they couldn’t be sued.

This morning we got up at five but had so much to do that we were not ready to go until 7:45. We put Chris and Floki together on the bottom and Frankie by himself on the top and then strapped them in.

As soon as we started Floki started screaming and Frankie was just wide-eyed and shaking. Chris was the only calm one although he did claw at me occasionally.

It is now 8:35 and Floki just stopped crying and has settled in. Frankie turned around and has calmed down too. The only issue now is that this truck feels like a bounce house but without the fun.

Back to the Vet for Chris

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My wife noticed around the middle of last week that Chris’s eye looked a little pink. She had some eye medication from another time that Chris or one of our other cats had an eye infection so we put that in Chris’s eye for a couple of days but it didn’t seem to help. I made an appointment for him on Thursday and on Friday afternoon I brought him to the vet.

Our concern was that it was pink eye or something like that and he would spread it to the other cats but the vet didn’t seem to think it was contagious. He asked me if he was scratching his eye, which I hadn’t noticed. It didn’t occur to me until later that maybe the problem was caused by a scratch.

Whatever the issue, he gave us a tube of medicine and we have been putting it in his eye. He hates it when we do that and he also hates it when I put medicine in his ears and now we have to do both. In two days I have not noticed much of an improvement. Hopefully it will get better before we have to leave for West Virginia.

If all goes well, and so far it hasn’t, we will be closing on Wednesday and leaving on Thursday morning.

Also, my computer has been acting up lately and today it won’t start. I tried using my rescue disk but that doesn’t work either so I posted this using my phone. I am not a big fan of working from my phone so I may not be as active for a while but I will try to keep you posted about our move.

Chris’s Real Eleventh Gotcha Day

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Ten days ago I posted about Chris’s eleventh Gotha Day but it seems I was having a senior moment and didn’t know what day it was. Chris’s real Gotcha Day is today, November fourteenth, not November fourth. It’s amazing what a difference adding a one can make.

What made me realize my mistake was the photo below that came up on my Facebook app on Thursday and said “Eleven Years Ago.”

This is a photo of Chris when he first met Rose at the shelter. You can see he was never shy. I looked at the date which was November 12th and thought two things. First I thought that Chris’s Gotcha Day was two days away so why did I write a post about it last week? I then thought it was weird that that photo was from November 12th and not November 14th.

After thinking about it I realized Rose met Chris much earlier. I looked it up and saw this photo was taken October 3rd, six weeks before we adopted Chris. Back then we didn’t post to Facebook from our phones and I probably posted that photo when we decided to adopt him.

In case you are wondering why it took so long it was because we had a cruise planned in October which took us back to Florida for more than a week. We couldn’t adopt a new cat and then leave. After we returned, Rose had to go to Alabama on a business trip. I think we brought Chris home the day after Rose returned from Alabama.

It is amazing that Chris was available for such a long time considering how loveable and affectionate he has always been. One reason, I think, is because he was adopted and then returned because he was too annoying for the couple who adopted him. That probably put a stain on his record. I know that happened but I don’t remember if that happened before I met him or in between this photo and the day we took him home.

In either case, I consider ourselves lucky to have found such a unique and special cat. In spite of his behavior, or perhaps because of it, he has been a real blessing in our lives.

Photo Friday: Kittens at the Shelter

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Since I am taking a break from volunteering due to our pending move, I thought I would share some memories from the shelter. Here are three kittens. I do not know if they are siblings. They probably are but sometimes more than one litter is put in the same pod.

These photos were taken six weeks ago so I am sure they have homes by now. If you want to see cute cats and kittens like these on a regular basis, I would recommend volunteering at a shelter. Sometimes all they need is someone to pay attention to the animals there. Bring a coffee with you and it would be like going to a cat café for free.

Riding the Storm Out

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We were hit by Tropical Storm Eta yesterday evening. I once heard that there is an old Indian legend that says there is something under the ground in the Pinellas County, Florida area that repels hurricanes. Indeed, we have never had a direct hit by a hurricane but maybe a tropical storm doesn’t qualify. I’m not sure where the center of the storm hit but I know it was north of us, perhaps in the next county, preserving the legend. In either case, it was pretty windy for a long time.

We have a a large oak tree next to our house and I think the wind was causing branches to fall on our roof so every couple of minutes we would hear a loud bang. Frankie and Floki were not exactly scared but the noise did seem to cause them concern.

Chris, on the other hand, was sleeping in the Florida room, totally oblivious to the noise. I wanted to get a photo of him napping but I made the mistake of turning the light on and woke him up

We decided to go to bed at around 10 p.m. That is when our power went out. Rose insisted we leave the bedroom door open for air circulation even though Chris is a pain in the butt.

He was actually not too bad at first but then fighting off his attacks became too much and I had to put him down off the bed. He, of course, didn’t stay down and by 1 a.m. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I got up and got the power inverter that I bought for last year’s hurricane season and plugged in one of my Ryobi 40 volt batteries. I then plugged in a fan and brought it into the bedroom and closed the cats out.

That worked good but by 4 a.m. the battery had died and we were both uncomfortably hot so I plugged in my other battery but by then we couldn’t go back to sleep.

We got up and I tried making coffee but it was too much for the battery so I ended up going to Dunkin Donuts for coffee after they opened.

We are now in the car heading to Lakeland where Rose has a property that she oversees. I assume our power will be back by the time we return but just in case I brought my batteries with to charge.

Update: I was wrong and the storm did not make landfall near me. It looks like it moved north along the coast and then made landfall 100 miles away as the state curves to the west.

Photo Friday: Following Frankie

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I saw Chris lying with Frankie the other day and thought it was too cute to not get a photo.

A little wile later I saw the two of them lying on the sofa just to the right of where they were, the area known as “my spot.” I was busy and did not get a photo of that.

Later in the day they moved to the right again to “Rose’s spot.”

I never saw them move but I know enough about them to know that Frankie moved to get a break from Chris but it didn’t work.

Our Move is Delayed

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We were supposed to close on our new home yesterday but at 6 p.m. the evening before, while we were out at dinner with my son and his girlfriend, my wife got a message saying they need paperwork from ten years ago. It is unbelievable how they can tell us everything is good to go and then suddenly need something at the last minute. We went home and looked but we didn’t have it. I thought it was super minor but it was enough for the loan to not go through. Why didn’t they know this before we paid $1000 for a survey and termite treatment? We also now have the power in our name for a house we don’t own,

So now we are starting over with another loan and the closing was pushed back two weeks. Or would that be pushed forward? Our house is upside down right now and our refrigerator is bare but we have to carry on like this for two more weeks. At least the cats don’t mind.

We have friends in Virginia that are planning to give us their dining room set. It is something they got from us many moves ago and now it is coming full circle. They had planned on coming to visit us on the 21st which puts us in a time crunch. We now have to rent the truck on closing day and be on the road on Thursday the 19th. If the house doesn’t close I will have a truck loaded with stuff and nowhere to go. Wish us luck.