I decided to put a camera outside our bedroom door to see what Chris is actually doing out there when he is scratching at the door and crying. I forgot to turn on the microphone so I only have the video.
Maybe tomorrow I will post one with sound.
I came across a video I took of Frankie a couple of months ago after one of his escapes. He was hiding under a car and I was trying to talk him out as it started raining. I wrote about it in a previous post but I must have forgotten I had a video too.
In a recent post I talked about a stray kitten that came up to our catio door to check us out. This kitten was not afraid of people and sniffed my hand when I put it up to the screen. I also said I thought I saw another kitten but I wasn’t sure. Now I am sure, or at least pretty sure. There seems to be two kittens that hang out together. These pictures were taken through my front door window yesterday morning. Please forgive the less-than-great quality.
I believe the one on the right is the one that came up to the screen the other day and the girl on the left is probably the one I thought I saw first that evening.
I want to help them. I have a desire to go out with food and maybe take them in and get them fixed or whatever. Unfortunately, I know nothing about them. I do know that the people behind us are taking care of several strays and these two are probably part of that group. There are other people nearby that also help. Perhaps these cats are already fixed or soon will be. Since we are only here temporarily, I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. I also don’t want to start feeding cats only to stop at the end of next month.
I have always found it somewhat easy to connect with animals. Often when visiting someone they would comment about how their pet likes me, like it was surprising to them. I think it is because I tend to be calm, easygoing, and patient, traits that I inherited from my mother.
My mother is here visiting us and has already made a friend in Frankie.
Years ago, before I started this blog, we had a cat named Flash.
Flash was very shy and the most skittish cat we ever had. He would come to me for attention sometimes but would never go to my wife. One day, while my mom was visiting, Rose and I went out for some reason and when we returned, Flash was on Mom’s lap. I probably don’t have to mention how jealous Rose was at that sight.
One of the great things about our new catio is that it offers a large area of ray catching opportunities.
Chris and Frankie don’t always get along but when they do it can really be a sight to see.
Here is a post for Throwback Thursday from March of 2015. We have weird cats that want to be around strangers.
Today I had the day off from work and we had two contractors scheduled for the same time. The plumber arrived first and all three cats were on the patio at the same time so I just slipped the cover on the cat door so they couldn’t come inside. Chris was actually the good cat this time while Frankie and Puck were desperate to come inside.
I was a little surprised Puck was desperate to get inside a house with a stranger in it but I understood that under the bed was where he was comfortable riding out the “stranger” storm. Of course, getting to the bed meant going right past the big, bad plumber. Frankie didn’t surprise me. He is a pain when he wants to go out and a pain when he wants to come in.
I thought the desperation in both cats was worth getting on video so…
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When we adopted Frankie in February of 2014, we noticed that he puked a lot. To be honest, I don’t remember if we took him to the vet for that specific problem but he has been to the vet a few times since then and I can’t imagine I never mentioned it to the vet. I think we just assumed that he ate too much too fast and then puked it up.
We don’t know Frankie’s backstory. I used to think that he was bulimic but now I think he must have had gastric bypass surgery before we got him and his stomach can’t handle eating too much food at one time.
For a long time I have been feeding our cats a large 5.5 Oz can of cat food in the morning and another later in the afternoon. That is 1.83 Oz per cat and actually a little less because I would often end up with uneaten food on at least one of the plates. It doesn’t seem like that much food but you have to account for the extra that Frankie was eating, usually at the expense of Chris
When I was working full-time I would feed them when I got up in the morning and again when I got home from work. This year I’ve been working almost full time in addition to working at home. Rose has been working from home more and usually Frankie bothers her so much that by 3:00 she feeds them.
That was the routine when we lived in Florida. Very often, but not always, Frankie would quickly finish his food and then he would finish Chris’s for him. A little while later I would have to clean up puke.
When we moved here to West Virginia and I took a two-month hiatus from my job I decided to buy the smaller, 3 ounce cans of cat food and feed them three times a day instead of twice.
I think the smaller portions have worked. Frankie has only puked twice in over two weeks. The first time was probably because I had brought the larger cans with me and used them up the first few days we were here. The second time he puked was after I gave them a large can of tuna as a treat.
I don’t like paying more per ounce for the smaller cans but considering that a lot of it was getting wasted it probably comes out even. Plus, I don’t have to clean up puke as much.
Since moving here to West Virginia, Chris has become quite the pain at night. Not that he wasn’t before but now he is worse. Chris is too annoying to allow in our room at night so we close all the cats out of our bedroom when we go to bed. At our Florida home, Chris learned to accept this and was usually quiet until around 4 a.m. or so. Here, he is quite different.
I have water and food bowls upstairs and downstairs for the cats. The food is usually empty except for a small amount a few times a day. I save one of those times for bedtime and I draw Chris out of the room with kibble and then close the bedroom door and go to bed.
The quiet lasts until Chris is done eating and then there is a constant scratching at the door and crying. The cry is almost a howl and it sound so sad and pathetic, as well as annoying, that I feel like I need to let him in, if only for a little while.
So lately I look at it like sleep training. When he starts his nails in the face routine I move him down to my feet. Sometimes that works for an hour or two and sometimes he is back in fifteen seconds. Never had I made it through the night with Chris. Sometime between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. I have to get up and put him out the door along with any other cat in the room.
I think what irks me the most is once Rose and I are awake and up for the day, that is when Chris decides to go to sleep on our bed.
I feel like sleep training will never work so I should probably give up and just ignore him, but it is equally difficult to sleep with him out there making all that noise. Plus, he is ruining the door.
Our new Catio has been a great place for the cats to go. They really enjoy it.
Unfortunately, Frankie has become quite the pain. Now that he knows he can go out there, he won’t stop asking to go outside. Anytime I am anywhere near the back door there is a cascade of meowing from Frankie. He gets all excited like he does at the other house when he knows he’s going for a walk, but most of the time I am busy doing something else and don’t have time to sit out there with him.
Maybe soon I will feel comfortable leaving them out there without me being there. For a little while anyway, I want to make sure that nobody will scratch holes into the screen and escape.
