Author Archives: Charles Huss

Bad Cat Chris versus Just Fur Laughs

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About a year after I started this blog, I started another blog called Just Fur Laughs. It is a blog featuring memes with animals. I worked on it diligently at first but after a while it sort of faded into the background.

Meanwhile, Bad Cat Chris continued to gain followers on the blog but not so much on the Facebook page. So I decided to put Chris in charge of the Facebook page and he managed to get 2500 followers by 2015. At the same time, or maybe shortly before, I considered dropping the Just Fur Laughs Facebook page for a lack of followers.

Since 2015 however, Chris has pulled in less than 300 more followers and is at 2792. I’m not sure why that is because we post on that page quite often. Just Fur Laughs’ Facebook Page, on the other hand, has been steadily climbing lately and I am not sure why because I have not been very consistent about adding new content, although I plan to do better.

Even though Bad Cat Chris has way more blog followers. Facebook is a different story. Every day recently I noticed that Just Fur Laughs was gaining and has now surpassed Chris with 2846 followers as of Tuesday morning.

I guess the reason I am writing this is because I don’t know how I feel. On the one hand, I am very happy that people like my work, but on the other hand, I wonder why Chris’s Facebook page has become stagnant. I guess even after all these years I am still learning. What do you think?

Volunteering Again

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The SPCA announced recently that they were allowing the volunteers to come back. I took that opportunity to trade my 4-7 shift on Thursdays for a 1-4 shift on Fridays. This means that I will be volunteering at the same time I am on call at the Red Cross but I have gone on two calls in six months so I thoght it would be no problem.

When I walked into the cat room I noticed that all of the pods were empty, at least all that I could see.

I thought maybe they moved the cats and didn’t tell me but as I continued I saw a pod with four cats in it. I was pleasantly surprised to find seven of the eight cat pods empty. The next room has the smaller cages where cats are kept in isolation, either because they are recovering from surgery, they have a special diet, or the don’t play well with others.

There were four cats in that room, including a very friendly black cat named Sassy who had a skin condition from a flea allergy. I took her photo but it is too blurry to post.

There were also six kittens in the room in three separate cages, probably separated by litter. There were two black kittens that I failed to get pictures of. There was also a single gold and white kitten who was curious but shy.

Then there was three kittens together in one cage, a ginger boy and two females including one tabby and one tortie.

The ginger kitten was the most outgoing of the three and would come down from the shelf for attention.

The four cats inside the pod were pretty shy except for a white and gold cat named Max.

When Max wasn’t busy catching some rays he was busy looking for attention

While I was there, a man and his two boys came in shortly before a woman. All of them decided they wanted to adopt the ginger kitten but the woman recognized that the man was first and let him take the kitten. Perhaps if he didn’t have two young boys who wanted the kitten, he might have let her have him. Unfortunately, the woman left without a cat.

Another woman, who had been in earlier, decided to adopt an eight year old male Siamese cat named Sage. He was hiding under their homemade cat tree so I had to pull him out and put him in a carrier. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it then but today he is living the good life.

While I was there I spoke with someone about doing animal transports. It is an on call position that I know almost nothing about yet but she did ask if I would be comfortable handling wildlife and mentioned birds of prey and a few others that I don’t remember. My guess is these are animals that are injured and need medical attention but I don’t know. I have an appointment to meet with her at 7:00 am this morning where I will learn more about the job. I think it will be interesting.

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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