Chris the Locksmith

Chris has always amazed me with his abilities to get into just about anything. This is just one example.

I mentionedin an earlier postthat we have been able to keep our bedroom door shut since moving to our new place. I also mentioned that we need to lock the door to keep him from making a lot of noise by pulling the handle down and letting it flip back up. Another reason for locking it is because he has now figured out how to open it.

A few weeks ago he opened our door in the middle of the night even though it was locked. I assumed that it was not completely shut and he was able to push it open. After last night I am not so sure.

We got home late because I picked up Rose from the airport and we were both tired when we went to bed so I forgot to lock the door. So as soon as I fell asleep Chris starts flipping the…

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Escape is a Team Effort

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My friend was at our house on Sunday and as he was coming in Chris ran out the door. With quick reflexes, my friend grabbed Chris before he made it past the first stair. Unfortunately, the delay in closing the door was long enough for Frankie to slip out. That, in turn, was the distraction Chris needed to get away as well.

Chris usually stays close so I don’t worry too much about him. Mostly he just eats grass but he will wander away if given enough time.

Frankie is the one I worry about because he just takes off. I think he searches the neighborhood for fleas, at least that seems to be the result sometimes. If he is not going under homes then he is hiding under cars so I can’t catch him.

On this day I just gave up and waited until Frankie was ready. While I was waiting I retrieved Chris and put him in the house. Eventually, Frankie came out of hiding and I coaxed him to the front door. I didn’t want to scare him by trying to pick him up so I just opened the door and let him walk inside.

But wait…. As he was about to enter the house I could almost swear he had a look of surprise on his face like he thought he was about to explore a strangers house and found out it was his own. When he saw where he was he quickly turned around and ran off. Not long after that I found him too pooped to resist and carried him home.

Photo Friday: Chris Undercover

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All our cats love to be on the bed when I make it but the reason for that is a mystery for Puck and Frankie. Chris’s reason is a little easier to understand. He wants me to cover him with the sheet or blanket. He is like a small child that likes to play under the covers. After the bed is made I have to pull the cover up so he can breathe. He doesn’t usually fall asleep under the cover so I had to make sure I got this photo.

The Cat’s Meow

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After more than two and a half years, this toy is still our cats favorite. Admittingly, we gave away the one in this video to my sister-in-law and then bought another one a couple of months later. I usually take it out once every couple of weeks and it is like a brand new toy all over again.

Bad Cat Chris

One of my favorite customers came to see me at work last week with a present for me. It was an electronic cat toy called “Cat’s Meow.” He said he ended up with two and since he knew I had cats thought I would have a use for it.

It took me a couple of days to get batteries but I finally got around to putting it together last weekend. It is a fairly simple concept yet it is amazing that nobody had thought of this before. The toy consists of a motor that turns an arm back and forth around a circle. At the end of the arm is a small ball and attached to that is a tail, or at least what passes as a tail. The mechanism is then covered with a round cloth so that only the tail sticks out.

I put it on…

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Forget Cat Food, We Want Steak

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At dinnertime in our house, Chris is, surprisingly, our best behaved cat. Last night I was cooking steak and they all lined up waiting for it to be done because they know I am a sucker and will give them some.

Frankie is the worst. He will just steal a big chunk of meat off my plate and eat it with no remorse.

Puck is a little better than Frankie but Puck is all about food, always has been. That is part of the reason we named him Puck. Think Wolfgang.

Chris, and to some degree Puck, are dainty eaters when it comes to meat. They don’t like large chunks so I have to make sure they have little pieces. It is like I am feeding babies instead of full-grown carnivores.

Frankie could live in the wild and probably did. He has no trouble scarfing down big chunks of steak.

Yes, we have spoiled our pets and created beggars and thieves, but why not? We don’t have to worry about them going to college and getting a good job or a nice woman. They are only with us for a short time so why not spoil them?

Photo Friday: Use It Or Lose It

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My wife sometimes works from home and has do deal with this whenever she gets up to take a break.

Ultimate Scratching Post… Really?

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We bought this scratching post almost three years ago. When I wrote this blog post, I thought we wasted our money but location is everything. We now have it in a high traffic area and all the cats use it, not only for scratching but also as a perch. It also is still in good condition.

Bad Cat Chris

Last weekend we were at Petco buying cat food when Rose decided the cats needed another scratching post to help encourage Chris to scratch on things other than her chair. We have plenty of approved scratching places in the house that Chris ignores but I figured it was worth a try.

We decided to get the SmartCat Ultimate Scratching Post because it was tall and heavy and seemed like it might be different enough to encourage Chris to use it. It had a hefty price tag of $80 but we decided to spend the money.

I put it together and Puck scratched on it right away but not Chris. I decided to sprinkle a little catnip on it to see if that would help but most of it fell to the ground where Chris and puck fought over it while ignoring the scratching post.

It has now been in our house…

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The Friendly Feral

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My mother-in-law, Elaine, has been feeding several feral cats in her neighborhood for several years now. Currently she has about four, perhaps more, that hang out near her home. Sometimes we go there to visit and there is a cat, sometimes two, hanging out under her carport. She has even been able to coax a couple of these ferals to come inside at least part-time. Her current cat, Pumpkin, is not too keen on an outside cat coming in and sleeping on the bed, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

We went to visit recently and saw a gold cat she named Benny and I was amazed at how friendly this cat was for a feral. It’s possible he was a pet at one time but that would be unusual since the pattern seems to be feral cats in that area. Thankfully, Elaine has done a good job getting the cats that hang around her house fixed.

When we arrived Benny was outside and I called him over to me and he came willingly. He loved being pet and rolled around in the grass while he talked to me. It was a very cool experience to see a feral cat so happy to get a little attention. I recorded it for your viewing pleasure. Please forgive the bad framing. I could not see the screen while I was recording and guessed a bit high.

Benny does have a bit of a skin condition on his nose but Elaine is treating it with an ointment.

So what do you think of Benny?

Chris Demonstrates Dominance

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I have been around cats long enough to be able to predict their behavior somewhat and not be surprised by behavior I didn’t predict. Of course, predicting behavior and understanding it are two different things and I sometimes think I will never understand why cats behave the way they do.

Chris, for example, will often straddle Puck and hold him down by the neck and then he will wash him like nothing ever happened. It seems like he’s showing his dominance but Puck never challenges Chris’s position so I don’t know why he feels compelled to do what he does. If anything, Frankie is the one that challenges Chris leadership but Chris doesn’t hold him down by the neck although he does whack him from time to time.