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Our Squirrel Feeder is for the Birds… or Vis Versa

I brought Floki to get his nails trimmed at the vet last Saturday. He actually had an appointment the Saturday before but his ability to read minds had him under the bed before we even attempted to catch him and put him in the carrier. This time we got lucky and I drove him to the vet.

Behind the counter was an office cat sitting on a cat tree intensely looking out the window like he was going to attack something. There was a window bird feeder on the window and I saw at the edge of the window a squirrel’s tail. The girl behind the counter said his name was Freddy and he loved watching the birds and squirrels. I decided then that I wanted a window bird feeder too.

I did a little research on Amazon and ended up buying this one. I also bought a bag of bird food with a high variety of seeds so that any bird who visits will find something they like. Note: these are affiliate links and I will get a very small commission if you make a purchase.

The first animal to discover the food was not a bird but a squirrel. My wife texted me the other day about how Frankie and Floki were watching it from the cat tree.

Yesterday the squirrel was back and this time I was ready with my phone to record the encounter. Unfortunately, Chris missed the whole thing because he was napping in the other room.

I am not one of those people who try desperately to keep squirrels out of my bird feeder. In fact, I like watching squirrels, and the cats really like watching squirrels, so I had no intention of trying to prevent the squirrels from reaching the feeder. That is until this morning when I noticed the squirrel was poking holes in the screen. So, reluctantly, I removed the screens.

I doubt that squirrel will be able to reach the feeder now but squirrels are pretty resourceful. Now we need to wait for the birds to find it. Perhaps I will put something out there for the squirrels in the future.

Update: After writing that last paragraph and scheduling the post, I heard a noise next to me. I looked and saw the squirrel hanging from the screen on the far left window (far right looking from the street). He was feeling for the screen on the next window. I said, “Sorry, Squirrel,” and I really felt bad for him but I needed not to because he reached up and grabbed the thin ledge between windows and managed to scurry across the windows to the feeder.

Now I either have to remove every screen in the Florida room, which I don’t want to do, or accept that the screens will eventually be ruined, which I also don’t want to do. My other two options are to put food out for the squirrels and hope they ignore the bird feeder or find something decorative that they can climb instead of our screens.

Photo Friday: Napping to a T

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Here’s Chris and Frankie forming an upside-down T while they take their catnap.

Our New Cat Tree

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For Throwback Thursday here is a post from June of 2015 when we got our cat tree. We still have it today.

Bad Cat Chris

When we moved, the plan was to get rid of the cat’s old, beat-up cat tree and replace it with a new one for the new place, but the high cost of moving delayed that plan until now. Saturday we found a very large, slightly used, Armarkat Cat Tree Condo for the ridiculously low price of twenty dollars. On Amazon it sells for $124, and even more elsewhere, so I think we got pretty lucky. It was in excellent condition except the second shelf from the top was broken, as if a very heavy cat jumped on it. A more likely scenario is someone attempted to move the cat tree and it tipped over.

We were in Rose’s Mustang and did not expect that we would be bringing home something so big. We didn’t feel like driving home to get the truck so we had to figure out how to make…

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Chris Vs. Vacuum

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I was vacuuming the other day and Chris would just not get out of the way. I tried pushing the vacuum into him to no avail. I had to stop filming and pick him up so I could finish the job.

Most cats are afraid of the vacuum but here, only Floki hides on cleaning day. How do your pets feel about the vacuum?

Photo Friday: Sav-R-Cats

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I don’t have many new photos this week so I found this photo from this day in 2010.

Sav-R-Cats is a shelter in Surfside, South Carolina (near Myrtle Beach) where we adopted Chris. I started volunteering at the Humane Society there where they had something like 200 cats all separated in individual cages. We were not allowed to take out more than one cat at a time and I just felt so bad every time I went in there. My neighbor told me about Sav-R_Cats and I decided to volunteer there instead. As you can see, they had no problem letting the cats mingle with one another.

To the right of the photo are several pens that are like small rooms. The cats are put in there at night and most are let out during the day. Some of the cats, particularly the long-term residents, are never put in cages. I understand that there is a greater risk of a sick cat infecting others but potentially sick cats are isolated so the risk is small. In my opinion, it is far more important for the cat’s well-being to make them as happy as possible while they are waiting for their forever home. What do you think?

Photo Friday: Our Resident Rabbit

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Here is a post for Throwback Thursday from June of 2015. Our old neighborhood had almost as many rabbits as people. I think our cats miss that. I see an occasional rabbit here but nothing like at our old place.

Bad Cat Chris

Our neighborhood is loaded with bunny rabbits (which I believe are Eastern Cottontails) but one in particular seems to hang out near our house. Granted, they all look virtually the same to me but I’m pretty sure this one rabbit is a regular. Perhaps he, or she, gets a kick out of riling up our cats.

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Chris’s Little Helpers

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About two weeks ago we were driving out of our neighborhood when we noticed an old couple outside with a couple of pet stairs that they labeled “free.” I stopped and mentioned that I had an older cat that might benefit from them. She said that she had them for her cat. I assumed the cat died but I didn’t pursue it.

I have been unsure about Chris’s capabilities lately. When I am sitting at my computer he scratches at my legs to get me to pick him up. He used to just jump on my lap but that ship sailed over a year ago. He also scratches at my legs or cries at me when I am sitting on the sofa, even though I know he can jump onto the sofa when I am not there.

In the bedroom, he jumps onto the footboard and then continues up from there. It is usually one fluid motion but lately, he seems to struggle to get onto the bed. He looks like someone who has slid off a cliff and is trying to pull himself back up.

I thought the stairs would be a big help so I put one in the bedroom and one in the living room next to the sofa. He didn’t use it at first and I had to put him on it a couple of times but he soon got the hang of it. I originally had it in front of my nightstand but my wife feared I would trip over it at night so she pushed the nightstand over and put it where it is now in the photo.

Having it this way does make more sense. It also means that Chris has to stop at the top and turn before getting on the bed but he quickly got the hang of that.

The stairs by the sofa are another story. Chris never used them and would either just jump onto the sofa or ask me to pick him up. I decided instead to put them next to my office chair. My hope was that he would climb the stairs to get on my lap.

So far he has never attempted to climb those stairs. He always just scratches my legs until I pick him up. They aren’t totally useless though. When I have to get up I sort of guide him to the stairs as I stand up. He then walks down the stairs and follows me, hoping this will be the time I will open the container of kibble.

I guess this is our reality now. Chris is not getting any younger or any lighter and I don’t expect that to change, although it would be helpful if I could get him to lose a few pounds.

My Solution For Peeing Over The Box

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I noticed recently that someone was peeing over the side of one of the litter boxes. I would often find pee on the floor between the blue litter box and the cabinet.

When I found pee on the floor I would clean everything extra thoroughly because I know sometimes the smell of one cat’s pee can prompt another cat to “mark” that same spot. It didn’t work. Almost every day I had to clean up pee.

It occurred to me that cats are creatures of habit. Once a habit is created, something must be done to break the habit. For example, I always make coffee in the morning and I put heavy cream in my coffee and my wife’s coffee. For some reason that I don’t remember, I started giving the cats a very small amount of that heavy cream whenever I made coffee. They soon became little vultures waiting for it and I couldn’t make coffee until they ate their breakfast or they would abandon their food in hopes of getting cream. When we went up to our home in West Virginia, it was the change I needed to break the habit. I stopped giving them the heavy cream and they never thought to beg for it because the situation was so different. When we returned to Florida I continued to not give them the cream and they all forgot about it.

This time I needed to change things enough to disrupt the routine of whoever the culprit was. I’m betting it was Frankie but I have no proof. I decided to move the blue box to the far right and shift the other two boxes over.