I guess a bad cat’s got to do what a bad cat’s got to do.
Photo Friday: I Wasn’t On The Refrigerator
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We Have a Stalker
After months of fighting, Chris is now going to the extreme in trying to be Frankie’s friend. He always seems to follow Frankie when he notices him get up to leave. He walks alongside him and pushes his head into Frankie’s. It reminds me of the scene in Jurassic Park where the Tyrannosaurus headbutts a jeep as it is running next to it. I’m afraid Frankie is ready to file a restraining order.
He also has to butt in when Frankie comes to me for attention. I’m not sure if he is jealous of me giving Frankie attention or the other way around.
How can I lose this guy?
These Are Not Pussy Cats
Every time I clean the house, I can’t help being amazed at Chris and Frankie’s total lack of fear of the vacuum cleaner. I have shared videos like this in the past but, at the risk of beating a dead horse, I would like to share one more.
Photo Friday: Sleeping With the Purses
I don’t know why but cats seem to have a fascination with lying on purses. So when Rose put several purses on a chair (temporally), Puck couldn’t resist napping on them.
Feral Cat Ear Notching
We know nothing about Frankie’s back story. We adopted him at Petsmart from The Pinellas County Animal Services. The person at Petsmart did not know anything about him so we just didn’t think much about it, although I did send a Facebook message to the animal services with his reference number but, even though they have an active Facebook page, I got no response.
I couldn’t help being perplexed, though, by the ear notch on his right ear. I have heard about ear notching before. It is the method of cutting a notch in a cat’s ear after spaying or Neutering. Sometimes it is called ear tipping when they remove about a centimeter off the tip of the ear.
Ear tipped cat
Ear notching or tipping is mostly done to feral cats involved in a Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) program. It identifies that they have been fixed so they are not trapped again and put under the knife a second time. I prefer the notch because it is less disfiguring but a ear-tipped cat is easier to identify from a distance. It is also more likely that a notch could be mistaken for an injury or vice versa.
The notch got me thinking. If he was a feral cat, why is he so friendly? Of course, not all notched cats are feral, some are strays, but if Frankie was caught as a stray with the intention of fixing him for adoption, why would they notch his ear? Perhaps it isn’t a notch. After all, it looks more like a slit than a triangular notch.
Frankie’s ear notch
I did a little research and found that ear tipping on the left ear is most common but there is no universal standard. Frankie’s quasi notch is on his right ear. That led me to believe it was more likely the result of a fight and didn’t think about it again until we visited my mother-in-law.
She has two cats. One of them is a gold cat named pumpkin that has the same slit on his right ear. Coincidence? Possibly. It is also possible that in this area, a small sliver of a notch in the right ear is how some vets do it.
Pumpkin
I tried to do a Google search to see what the standard is where I live on the west coast of Tampa Bay, Florida, but I found nothing concrete. I searched Petfinder for cats in my area and found four or five with a tipped ear but none with a notch. So the mystery remains. It doesn’t really matter where Frankie comes from and if I never find out, I won’t care. I just can’t help loving a good mystery.
Do you have a cat that has been notched or tipped? Do you know what is common where you live? I’d like to hear about it.
Photo Friday: Photogenic Frankie
Out of our three cats, Chris, Puck, and Frankie, I am starting to think that Frankie is the most photogenic. That is not to say he is better looking but he does not have the disadvantages that make things more difficult for photographers.
For example, Puck is a good-looking cat but he is all black and it is difficult to pick up fine details, especially when you must underexpose him to keep the background from becoming too overexposed.
Chris’s problem is “eye boogers.” He always seems to have a bit of goo in the corner of his eyes that can be a distraction. On the other hand, he has had that problem his whole life and that may be considered a distinguishing characteristic.
Does anyone else have one pet that seems to be more photogenic? If you’d like, post a link to their picture.
I Know Where You Keep the Catnip
We keep the catnip in the cabinet above the stove because it is the one cabinet in the house that Chris can’t open. Nevertheless, he knows it is in there and he is on a mission to get to it.
Making the Bed… With Cats
I have learned that if you want to get a cat’s attention, start making the bed. They could all be sleeping in the other room but once you start to pull the sheets up, you’ve got a party.
I didn’t always know that bed making was a favorite activity of many cats. I first noticed it with our cat Tigger many years ago. I would pick him up and put him on the floor and he would jump right back up on the bed. This became the routine every morning. I started singing a song by Chumbawamba while making the bed; “I get knocked down but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down.” I never knew the rest of the lyrics so I would just repeat those to Tigger while I struggled to finish the bed.
Now that Tigger is gone, Chris and Puck are happy to take over the duties of making my job as difficult as possible and they are very good at it.
Photo Friday: Bad Cat Club
Chris wants to start a Bad Cat Club and has Recruited Frankie as the first member. Anybody else want to join?
Patio Life
Here on the west coast of Florida, it gets pretty hot in the summer. It seems almost every afternoon the temperature is at or near 95 degrees Fahrenheit. There is also a high humidity in the summer that makes being outside during midday quite unpleasant. We try to limit our outdoor activities to the mornings or late afternoons.
Chris and Puck feel that way too. Often they use that time to nap on the sofa or, in Chris’s case, find a human to bother. Frankie is different. I often look out the window to see him napping on the patio during the hottest part of the afternoon. He must be part camel or something because he spends much of his day outside in the heat and does not seem to be bothered by it in the least. Perhaps he still retains some of the traits of his distant ancestor, the African Wildcat.
Bad Cat Chris 