Since my wife is away and since I just clipped Chris’s claws, I decided to let the cats sleep with me Monday night. Of course, that was a mistake. I should have known.
Chris started bothering me sometime before 3 AM. I suppose I should have been grateful that he lasted that long. If I was smart, I would have picked him up and put him out of the bedroom but I was just too tired to get up. He continued bothering me, on and off, (mostly on) until sometime after 5 a.m. when I decided that I had enough and I got out of bed.
I fed them breakfast, made coffee, and did a couple of other things and then went back in the bedroom and saw this.
I guess it was mission accomplished so no longer need to stay awake.
Chris was sitting on my lap yesterday evening when he reached up to stick his claws into my skin like he often does but this time his claws got stuck in my neck and I had to reach over and pull them out. I was highly annoyed, as well as in pain, and I said, “Okay, Chris, enough is enough.” I then picked him up and carried him to the bedroom.
The “enough” I was referring to was me allowing his nails to get so long and sharp. The reason I carried him into the bedroom was because my wife keeps the nail clippers in her nightstand drawer. She clips the cat’s nails about eighty percent of the time but she is away on a business trip so I did it.
Chris was amazingly good for me this time. He did not try to pull his paw away, even when I had trouble seeing some of his nails. After I finished, he made a point of washing his paws.
Last year while fitness centers were still on lockdown, I purchased what is called a Power Tower as a way to work out at home. This one had the added benefit of having a retractable workout bench.
The room was pretty cramped until we brought the chairs to West Virginia. Then I was able to put the bench down so Frankie could use it.
The truth is, like most home workout equipment, it rarely got used. Rarely by me but Frankie loved hanging out on the bench. It was long enough for him to stretch out on and high enough to see what was going on outside. When we started going to the gym again, the bench and tower went from rarely being used to never being used, except by Frankie.
Now that we are back, and with us came a boatload of stuff from the other house, Rose is insisting that I sell it to make room for her new rocking chair that we brought with us. This time I had no defense and posted it for sale. Sorry, Frankie.
For years now I have been feeding our cats a raw food diet. It was not a strictly raw food diet because I also gave them dry food, mostly because Chris would only eat a bite or two of the wet food and then stop. I thought withholding dry food would get him to eat more of the wet food but that didn’t happen so I gave in. Since then, I have reduced the dry food considerably and Chris is eating more of the wet food, although he still lets Frankie and Floki steal his wet food.
It wasn’t the raw food that Chris didn’t like, it was wet food in general. Eventually, Frankie and Floki became finicky and stopped eating the raw food too. I figured that nobody likes eating the same food all the time so I started giving them a variety of canned foods in the morning, with a heavy emphasis on Earthborn Holistic’s Chicken Cacciatori. I then fed them the raw food in the afternoon.
When we went to our home in West Virginia for two months, I decided to skip making raw food for a while since I did not know how difficult it would be to find good quality meats.
After we returned I bought some Chicken Breast at Sprouts and made another batch of raw food. They loved it.
Floki cried at me the entire time I was making it. I kept putting down pieces of chicken for him and he kept crying for more.
If you want to make raw food for your cats, I recommend TC Feline premix. If you buy the one with chicken liver, you simply have to add ground chicken, or whatever meat you want. Egg yokes are optional.
While I have an affiliate connection with Amazon, I do not have one with TC Feline. I just like their product because it is so easy to use and the cats love it. I will say though that Chicken is their favorite. I did not have success with beef or turkey.
While this is a healthier option than canned foods, it would probably be even more healthy if you bought it without the liver and added your own. I did that when I lived near Whole Foods but now it is a bit of a hassle finding good quality liver. Also, grinding the bones with the meat would be even better for your cats but that is for people who are willing to invest in a grinder capable of grinding bones (I have a simple grinder that attaches to our Kitchen Aid). It would also require a different supplement. I am not that dedicated, although maybe someday I will be.
Our Florida home does not have a catio like our West Virginia home but we do have a Florida room that is a little bit like a catio. It is surrounded by big windows and the cats do enjoy being out there.
What makes it different is the glass windows. The feeling of being outside, the sounds and the smells, are lost when the windows are closed, and they are usually closed because the air conditioner is running.
Now that winter is coming we should be able to open them a little but, unfortunately, opening them more than three or four inches will likely result in Frankie or Chris pushing the screen out of the frame
I just need to make a point of bringing them out for walks when I can.
Chris was not the center of attention during the cat’s weekly outing in our backyard on Sunday. Frankie took that trophy in a big way. He not only caught the only lizard of the day, he managed to climb onto our roof. He then was unsure how to get down.
Unfortunately, I have not perfected my movie making skills yet and was distracted by bringing Puck into the house when he made his way to the roof. I then spent the next 10 minutes following Frankie with the camera as he searched for a way down. Unknown to me then, the last half of that time was spent with the record button off. He did finally jump down to the roof of our neighbor’s truck and everything ended well.
Here is the video from Sunday. If you don’t want to watch the entire thing, I recommend starting at around 5:22.
My wife called me at work yesterday to tell me that Frankie escaped. She said she had a hair appointment at 4:00 and if he wasn’t back by then she would have to leave him outside. I looked at my watch. It was just after 1:30. If I hurried I might be able to get all of my important work done and get home before she left.
Fortunately, she called me back at 3:00 to tell me that he was back. She said she opened the window on the door a few inches and the put a chair in front of it. Of course, Chris and Floki jumped at the chance to get a good smell out the window.
Rose was hoping to use them as Frankie detectors and it worked. When Frankie showed up Chris started growling and hissing which prompted Rose to get up and let him in
Not long after I got home, I noticed how comfortable Frankie was and wondered why he is always trying to get out.
He should know by now that there’s no place like home.
During the two months that we were in West Virginia, I did not take Frankie for a walk one time, although he did escape once. Frankie was generally content with hanging out on the catio and didn’t bother me to go outside so I didn’t bother offering. I thought when we got back to Florida he might forget about going for a walk, but not so.
We spent a good part of Sunday unpacking. We started shortly after waking up that day and by about 10:30 that morning Frankie was following me around the house desperately meowing at me. I don’t exactly speak cat but I think I can understand Frankie pretty well. He acts like that when he wants to go outside and thinks there is a real chance it is going to happen. It is like when you say to your dog in an excited voice, “Do you want to go outside?” Of course, the dog will get excited and go around in circles. That is almost the same reaction I get from Frankie but sometimes I get it without saying anything. That’s when I know it’s time to drop what I’m doing and take him out.
He stayed relitively close for a while. He was busy smelling all the plants in the area.
After a while, he started gradually moving away from the house. When we got about eight houses away I decided that was far enough and picked him up and carried him about halfway back before he struggled his way out of my hands. I didn’t care as long as he was walking in the right direction. He spent a lot of time smelling a plant in front of someone’s house that I worried the owner would look out the window and see me standing there. They would probably assume I had a dog and was letting him poop in their yard so I dropped Frankie’s leash and backed away a little.
When Frankie finally did resume moving he walked behind the houses. When we approached our house I picked him up and put him inside. As per tradition, when Frankie comes in, Chris goes out.
I hung around with Chris for a while, watching him eat grass and relax on the cool concrete. After about ten minutes he was done and asked me to open the door for him.
It was a nice break but then I went back to unpacking for the next four hours.
My wife and I spent about eight hours yesterday unpacking our stuff that we brought back from West Virginia, but to look at Frankie you would think he did all the work.
