Frankie found a good source of heat in our house and has been spending a lot of time there.
Photo Friday: The Grate is Great
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Dog Days
The day after we arrived at our new house in West Virginia, our friends, Julie and Tim, came with a dining room set that they got from us several years ago. When they moved from Florida to Virginia they no longer had room for it and had it in storage.
They arrived on a Saturday with their two dogs, Harley and Link. Harley is an older Shih Tzu and Link is a young Poodle mix that Julie found wandering on the side of the road.
For the three days they were here, the house was separated into a dog zone and a cat zone. The cat zone was upstairs and the dog zone was downstairs. The divider was the bottom of the stairs and very often there was a staredown between Frankie and Link.
The dogs were kept in the bedroom at night and several times during the day which allowed our cats to come downstairs to eat and visit with us. I’m sure after that long drive here they didn’t need the stress of dealing with dogs but cats are resilient and once the dogs were gone it was like nothing happened. They were out and running through the house without a care in the world.
Photo Friday: How to Make Mom Jealous
We adopted Puck for my wife but he then tended to be more my cat. We then adopted Frankie for her and the same thing happened. Finally we adopted Floki for Rose and I was told not to be nice to him. Of course, I would never be mean to any cat but Floki has been Rose’s cat since he was a kitten. He comes to me for attention sometimes but he wants attention from Rose even more.
Since we moved to our new home, and I think even before that, Floki has been spending more time on my lap. This does not go over well with his mom, especially when she looks over and sees three cats on my lap.
Photo Friday: Let Us Out
Frankie and Chris discovered the full length windows in the laundry room in our new home.
Safe and Sound at Our New Home
Since I have no internet and am posting from my phone, I just wanted to let everyone know we arrived at our new home in West Virginia at around 2:00 yesterday afternoon.
We put the cats in the downstairs bedroom and two helpers and I unloaded the truck.
When we were done Rose let the cats out to explore while I was still outside doing something. When I came in I couldn’t find any of the cats. I looked around downstairs and then went upstairs and found Chris at the top of the stairs looking down. We were worried that Chris’s age and weight would keep him from going up the stairs but we were wrong.
It took a while to find Frankie and Floki who were hiding behind the mattress and box spring that was leaning against a wall. I figured Floki would be nervous but was surprised Frankie was such a baby.
After a while everyone was out exploring or relaxing.
After over four hours of unloading and unpacking, we had to go out for dinner and then the grocery store. By the time we got back we were both exhausted and went to bed. We left our door open because we were worried about the cats. Chris was a bit of a pain but not as bad as usual.
This morning everyone was very comfortable with their surroundings.
I did find poop in the tub this morning which is exactly what Chris used to do when we adopted him. It took me years to learn that two litter boxes next to each other solved the problem so I put litter in the second box and need to buy two more for upstairs.
I Survived a Hotel Night With Bad Cat Chris
Our cats were so happy when we got to the hotel yesterday. Well, okay, once Frankie and Floki decided to remove themselves from under the sofa, then they were happy.
We were happy too. Our trip was extremely unpleasant and way longer than Google predicted. I don’t want to do that ever again and yet, here we go for day two.
We went to bed relatively early last night, before 9:00, but because we were not able to shut the bedroom door, Chris spent the night bothering me. He bothered Rose too but his focus was on preventing me from sleeping.
I don’t know how many times I put Chris off the bed or pushed him to the foot of the bed where Frankie and Floki were quietly behaving. Each time he would stay away for some time between ten seconds and then minutes and then he would be back clawing, scratching, biting or lying on my head.
Not long after 3:00 a.m. Rose decided to get up because she couldn’t sleep. I was so tired I didn’t want to get up with her so she fed the cats hoping that would distract Chris. That worked for about two minutes and then he was back bothering me. After ten minutes I couldn’t take it any longer and put him off the bed ad tried to go back to sleep.
I then heard the sound of a cat digging in the litter box and my wife laughing. Of course I had to know what was so funny so she told me what Chris was doing so I had to turn to see for myself.
I should say that I bought a small, disposable litter box for the trip and then decided it was too small and bought a small non disposable litter box with a small bag of litter. Chris was in the bigger of the two boxes pushing all the litter out and the trying to scoop litter into the box from the smaller box.
Now that I am up Chris decided to take a nap next to me. Why couldn’t he do that last night.
Halfway There
We made it to our hotel in Columbia, South Carolina at around 5:30. It should have taken seven and a half hours but it actually was closer to ten.
This photo was taken right after Floki discovered he couldn’t jump through the mirror.
We need to leave very early tomorrow so we get to our new home in West Virginia in time to get help unpacking.
West Virginia Here We Come
We rented a moving truck yesterday and I spent about four hours loading it. When I was mostly done we went back to the U-Haul place and got the car carrier. They quasi helped us but said we had to do it so they couldn’t be sued.
This morning we got up at five but had so much to do that we were not ready to go until 7:45. We put Chris and Floki together on the bottom and Frankie by himself on the top and then strapped them in.
As soon as we started Floki started screaming and Frankie was just wide-eyed and shaking. Chris was the only calm one although he did claw at me occasionally.
It is now 8:35 and Floki just stopped crying and has settled in. Frankie turned around and has calmed down too. The only issue now is that this truck feels like a bounce house but without the fun.
Back to the Vet for Chris
My wife noticed around the middle of last week that Chris’s eye looked a little pink. She had some eye medication from another time that Chris or one of our other cats had an eye infection so we put that in Chris’s eye for a couple of days but it didn’t seem to help. I made an appointment for him on Thursday and on Friday afternoon I brought him to the vet.
Our concern was that it was pink eye or something like that and he would spread it to the other cats but the vet didn’t seem to think it was contagious. He asked me if he was scratching his eye, which I hadn’t noticed. It didn’t occur to me until later that maybe the problem was caused by a scratch.
Whatever the issue, he gave us a tube of medicine and we have been putting it in his eye. He hates it when we do that and he also hates it when I put medicine in his ears and now we have to do both. In two days I have not noticed much of an improvement. Hopefully it will get better before we have to leave for West Virginia.
If all goes well, and so far it hasn’t, we will be closing on Wednesday and leaving on Thursday morning.
Also, my computer has been acting up lately and today it won’t start. I tried using my rescue disk but that doesn’t work either so I posted this using my phone. I am not a big fan of working from my phone so I may not be as active for a while but I will try to keep you posted about our move.
Chris’s Real Eleventh Gotcha Day
Ten days ago I posted about Chris’s eleventh Gotha Day but it seems I was having a senior moment and didn’t know what day it was. Chris’s real Gotcha Day is today, November fourteenth, not November fourth. It’s amazing what a difference adding a one can make.
What made me realize my mistake was the photo below that came up on my Facebook app on Thursday and said “Eleven Years Ago.”
This is a photo of Chris when he first met Rose at the shelter. You can see he was never shy. I looked at the date which was November 12th and thought two things. First I thought that Chris’s Gotcha Day was two days away so why did I write a post about it last week? I then thought it was weird that that photo was from November 12th and not November 14th.
After thinking about it I realized Rose met Chris much earlier. I looked it up and saw this photo was taken October 3rd, six weeks before we adopted Chris. Back then we didn’t post to Facebook from our phones and I probably posted that photo when we decided to adopt him.
In case you are wondering why it took so long it was because we had a cruise planned in October which took us back to Florida for more than a week. We couldn’t adopt a new cat and then leave. After we returned, Rose had to go to Alabama on a business trip. I think we brought Chris home the day after Rose returned from Alabama.
It is amazing that Chris was available for such a long time considering how loveable and affectionate he has always been. One reason, I think, is because he was adopted and then returned because he was too annoying for the couple who adopted him. That probably put a stain on his record. I know that happened but I don’t remember if that happened before I met him or in between this photo and the day we took him home.
In either case, I consider ourselves lucky to have found such a unique and special cat. In spite of his behavior, or perhaps because of it, he has been a real blessing in our lives.
