Sometimes when I take Frankie for a walk he finds a tree to use as a scratching post.
I think it’s great when he does that because a real tree is what nature intended cats to scratch on. I wish I could put a real tree inside our house. Then, maybe, the cats would actually scratch where they are supposed to.
My father-in-law had planned to come to our house for Thanksgiving but ended up in the hospital on Wednesday. Fortunately, it wasn’t too serious and he was released on Friday. Rose thought it would be a good idea to go see him so we packed some Thanksgiving leftovers and drove to the other coast.
We stopped to see him before going to our hotel in Melbourne. While Rose was outside talking to her dad, I went inside to see the cat.
Her name is Precious and she is a very friendly ginger girl. She was happy to have me pet her while she purred and rubbed her face on my hand. I felt guilty leaving her but I didn’t want to be antisocial.
If anything happens to Rose’s Dad or if it becomes too difficult for him to take care of her, she will become our cat. Of course, we don’t need four cats but I’m happy she is a friendly girl.
We put our tree up last week and all of the cats have taken turns hanging out under the tree.
Now, if I could only get all of them under the tree at the same time I might be able to get a good photo for my Christmas post. Of course, I don’t see that happening.
I took Frankie for a walk the other day. As usual, Frankie goes out first because he is the biggest pain about going outside. When we get back, it is then Chris’s turn.
This walk went as it usually does. Frankie smelled some plants, marked a bush, and then settled down in the sun.
We were out for about thirty minutes. During that time Chris was eagerly awaiting our return. Rose said he lied in the dining room window the entire time. Rose sent me the photo below while I was out but I didn’t see it until I returned.
Floki joined Chris but I’m sure he was there to be with Chris and probably didn’t even realize Frankie and I were outside.
When it finally was Chris’s turn to go outside, he did his usual things, lie on the driveway, eat grass, etc. When it was time to go in he did something he has not done since teaching the move to Frankie, he went under my truck to avoid capture.
No matter how old Chris gets, he is still full of surprises.
Here is a photo from eleven years ago today. This is Chris and Tigger napping together. I know it is hard to get used to but Chris is actually the skinny cat in this picture.
Chris, Frankie, and Floki want to wish all our American readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. We are thankful for many things, including all our readers.
My wife is in charge of several apartment communities in Florida, Virginia, and West Virginia. One of the closer ones to our house is about fifty miles away. The manager there told Rose about a friendly stray cat that started hanging around the office. They decided to help the cat by allowing it to come into the office. Rose ordered several supplies for him on Chewy, including a litter box, litter, food, and toys. She visited the property last Wednesday and sent me these photos.
They named the cat “Gato” which is essentially the same as naming him “Cat.” I don’t think Gato cares what he is called, he is just happy to have people to love on him.
He comes and goes during the day, taking advantage of the many people who open the door for him. At night, he stays inside and someone comes to take care of him on the weekend.
One of the maintenance guys from the property came to our house on Saturday to help install two new windows in our house and I give him one of our carriers so they could take him in to be neutered.
From what I hear, he is super friendly so he is probably not feral but was someone’s pet at one time. I have seen this several times before and wonder how they become separated from their humans. I know at apartment complexes people sometimes move out and leave their cats behind. Sometimes they leave them inside an apartment with no food and water. I would like to think humanity is better than that and most strays end up on the streets for innocent reasons.
One of the great things about volunteering at an animal shelter is the entertainment that you get while there. For example, three kittens pulling at my shoelaces was quite fun to watch.
Okay, maybe Berry is not really a wonder cat but he is quite the love bug. Barry had one eye removed a week ago and the last time I looked he was still available for adoption. If you live in the Tampa Bay area you can’t go wrong with such a loving cat.
Berry is available for adoption at the SPCA in Largo, Florida. Check out their listings for cats here. If he is no longer on the list that means he was probably adopted.
I mostly stopped volunteering when I got my lastest job early in the year. It was supposed to be part-time, about twenty hours a week, but the other part-time employee quit and it quickly turned into about thirty-five hours a week. I did manage to squeeze in a day here and there but then we went to West Virginia for two months.
Things have slowed down at work lately and it seems I might be able to consistently get Fridays off so I signed up for a shift last Friday. When I got there I noticed things had not changed much. Cats still needed homes and people still came around looking for cats
There were a fair number of kittens as well as adults cats. It seemed there were a lot of very friendly black cats that day.
There was also a Siamese kitten there.
I texted Rose his photo and she wanted me to adopt him but several minutes later someone came in with his paperwork wanting to adopt him. When a person wants to adopt a cat they take the cat’s paperwork to the adoption office. I imagine these people grabbed his paperwork so nobody else would take him and then wondered around the shelter in case they found a better option.
The Siamese was part of a group of kittens that were very cute and funny. I learned later they were all from the same litter even though only one was Siamese. I know a litter could be from more than one father so maybe that was the case.
While I was standing outside the cage talking to someone, one of the kittens climbed up the door and poked me in the back to get my attention.
Later I saw the same black kitten climb up the door but this time he had a copycat.
The Siamese cat climbed all the way to the top of the door.
I was worried he might hurt himself jumping down from that hight but I had to wait for him to get above the door so I could open it. Once inside I pulled the bench over to stand on and then had a hard time separating the cat from the cage.
The friendliest cat in the shelter and the one I most wanted to bring home was Berry.
Berry had a bad eye infection that the vets could not get under control so they had to remove his eye on Monday. I felt so bad because he was so very much in need of attention. I opened his cage a few times to pet him and he was just all over me. I have a video that I will try to post soon.
Alas, as much as we want to save them all it is just not realistic to think we can adopt another cat, especially since we already have two more than we are suppose to have.
