Goodbye Tigger – Rest in Peace

4 Replies

I am very saddened to say that Tigger is no longer with us. He was a good, loving cat who died too young. He will be missed.

I woke up Saturday morning around 4 a.m., as usual, because Chris was bothering me. I think I managed to get him to stop a couple of times, just long enough for me to go back to sleep before he would start biting my nose again or treading on my neck. I finally dragged myself out of bed a little before 5 a.m.

I didn’t turn the light on because Rose was still sleeping so I walked downstairs in the dark. When I reached the bottom of the stairs and turned the corner I stepped in something wet. I turned the kitchen light on and saw there were two or three small spots of poop on the floor. I thought Chris had a problem with runny poop again and it all didn’t come out in the box.

I cleaned my foot, cleaned the poop off the carpet and then made coffee. While it was brewing, I went into the bathroom to clean the box and noticed several more spots of poop next to the litter box and in front of the bathroom. It was looking like a real problem so I decided to check the rest of the first floor. There were several spots in the living room but under the stairs and behind the television, where the other litter box is, was the biggest problem.

There were several more spots of poop but there was three large areas of vomit. I spent quite awhile cleaning the mess quietly, and while I did that, I saw Tigger climb into the litter box and vomit again. I suspected it was Tigger but I knew for sure then.

When I heard Rose was awake I brought up coffee and noticed more poop in our bedroom. That started a cleaning frenzy that lasted almost four hours. Rose notice vomit on the bed downstairs and washed the comforter, only to have him puke on it again as soon as it was replaced.

She made an appointment at the vet for 11:00 but wouldn’t let me come with her. She suspected Tigger would not be coming back and thought I couldn’t handle it. I knew she was wrong and I insisted that I come with her but she said she wouldn’t go if I went. Eventually I just gave up and let her go. She was right, he did not come back.

Tigger has been somewhat unhealthy for a while. When he was young we had to rush him to the emergency clinic late at night because he was having trouble breathing. It turned out that he had eaten too fast and had a clump of food stuck in his esophagus. They took x-rays during their diagnostics and noticed, in addition to his current problem, that half of his heart was enlarged.

A couple of years ago he developed a problem with his gums and had a problem eating. The vet said it is something that cats sometimes get and did not have a real solution to the problem except to give him steroids or antibiotics, either treatment was only a temporary fix. He said that removing all his teeth might stop the problem from coming back but he couldn’t guarantee that, so every couple of months the problem would come back and we had to get more antibiotics. We picked up the last prescription last Saturday and had not finished giving it to him yet.

He also seemed more Grumpy lately. I wrote in a recent post how he had been attacking Chris lately, which was not his character. We thought Abbey’s death had affected him, since they were close, but it could have been that he was just not feeling well.

Now it is just Chris and Puck, and Rose does not want to get any more pets because it is too hard to lose them. I totally understand. We have lost too many pets during the last three years.

In memory of Tigger I have created (on Flickr) a set of photos here. I also created one for Abbey here.

Tigger and brother Flash

Tigger and Alex

Tigger and Abbey

Tigger playing Monopoly

Tigger in Flowers

Young Chris and Tigger

Tigger, Chris and Puck

The Wrath of Tigger (badcatchris.com)

Adopt a Bad Cat

2 Replies

This post is going to be a little different today. I was at PetSmart recently and passed the cats that are there for adoption. They have, I believe, eight small cages and one larger one. The small cages have a small door that connects to the cage next to it and it is up to the animal shelter that happens to have their cats at PetSmart weather or not to open or close the connecting doors. I hate seeing the cats in those small cages and I always look to see if the doors are open. If they are, at least the cats can socialize with their neighbor and I feel a little better about it.

I mention this because it was at a Petsmart in Myrtle Beach that I first met Chris. I was volunteering at a cat rescue organization called Sav-R-Cats at the time. My main job was to photograph the cats and put them on Petfinder.com. I also created their website and designed one of their brochures.

They rotated at Petsmart with two other organizations and were there for two weeks and then off for four, if memory serves me right. They had volunteers that would take care of cleaning and feeding the cats every morning and afternoon. I was not one of them but I did fill in as needed.

One of the cats at Myrtle Beach Petsmart

Our shelter did leave the small doors open and let the cats mingle, except for certain cases when they could not do that. That made it easier because when I cleaned the cages I would let the entire row out at once to play while I cleaned. One day I had a cat jump on my shoulders while I was cleaning the cages. That cat was, of course, Chris, and my world has never been the same.

Notice the open door.

When I saw those cats in their cages recently, I thought of Chris and tried to imagine him today in a small cage all day, every day. It seems like that kind of confinement would be devastating to a cat like Chris who loves the freedom to explore and even wants more freedom to explore outdoors. I then thought there must be many, many cats with similar personalities that are, right now, stuck in an eight cubic foot box.

I would like to ask everyone reading this to just consider adopting a homeless pet. It doesn’t matter if it a cat or a dog. They all deserve a good home and whether they are bad like Chris or well-behaved, chances are they will reward you in ways you can’t imagine.

If you can’t adopt a pet, another rewarding thing you can do is volunteer. There are so many pets in shelters and while they are there, most just don’t get the attention they deserve because of limited resources. By that I mean people.

Thanks for reading and I welcome any comments or suggestions you may have.

…and the Bad Shall Lead

7 Replies

When I met Rose, we both had an eight year old son living with us. My son, Chris, was somewhat easy-going and spent too much time indoors playing video games. (Just a side note: Bad Cat Chris was not named after my son. That is the name he had when we got him. See “What’s in a Name“) Rose’s son, Nick, was hyper-active and it was difficult to keep him in the house. When we all moved in together, we thought Nick would motivate Chris to go outside, but instead, Chris got Nick interested in video games. I don’t know if undesirable behavior is more influential or not, but in our household, that seems to be the case.

Take Puck for example. He came to us as a kitten and had surprisingly good behavior, but lately he seems to be picking up some of Chris’s habits. Recently he started jumping on my shoulders. I don’t consider this a bad behavior but I think he learned it from watching Chris. What he didn’t learn was how to stabilize himself. Chris is a natural and never seems off-balance but I have to move carefully when Puck is on my shoulders because I fear he will lose his balance and dig his claws into me, which has already happened a couple of times.

The other day he picked up another trick from Chris’s playbook and used me to get onto the refrigerator (See “Chris’s Springboard“) and from there to the top of the cabinets. Now he skips me and hops onto the counter, then the fridge and up to the cabinets, just like Chris. He hasn’t yet learned to jump from the fridge to the cabinets on the opposite side of the kitchen but that will probably be next.

Bad Cat Chris and Puck on top of the Cabinets

Now Puck is starting to bother us when we are sleeping. He is not bad yet but if he gets to be like Chris, I won’t feel guilt about shutting the door and keeping them all out at night.

Update: I created a motivational poster using the image above. Click here to see it.

Bad Cat Chris Dominates New Blog

The Bird Tormentor

5 Replies

The following was meant to be published last August so it is out of sequence. I just happened to notice today that it was marked as a draft. Oops

Chris enjoying sunshine while looking out window

Considering that cats tend to nap most of the day away, Chris is no ordinary cat. He is usually looking for trouble to get into while Abbey and Tigger are snoozing. That being said, there are times when he will relax. When we lived in the condo, he would often lay on the spare bed and look out the window. This was a favorite spot for all the cats.

Mocking bird finds Bad Cat Chris

One day a mockingbird spotted Chris in the window and started hovering just outside, trying to intimidate him to leave. This of course just caused him to become more interested in the bird.

Chris tries to catch bird – notice wings on left

This went on for a couple of weeks, sometimes several times a day. A few times I had the window open a few inches and Chris would slide his body between the glass and the screen in a vain attempt to get the bird. I had to keep the window shut because I was afraid he would push the screen out and fall from the third floor.

The funniest part of all that was the bird only picked on Chris. When Tigger and Abbey were laying there, the bird was nowhere in sight. I suppose this might have been a mother bird protecting a nearby nest and to her, Chris just looked like trouble. Only Chris could cause problems by looking out the window.

Mockingbird Tormentor returns

I do know that mocking birds can be pretty mean for their size. I have regularly seen them chasing larger crows and even an Osprey. Rose said when she was young she had an outside cat that lived in fear because a mockingbird would attack it every chance it could. She thought it was payback for something bad that the cat did but I think the cat’s territory just overlapped with the bird’s.

Eventually the bird stopped bothering Chris. It was around June so I suppose it was nesting season and once the young birds were out of the nest, there was no reason to protect it.

The Wrath of Tigger

7 Replies

Lately, every once in a while, I will hear the sound of a cat in distress. The first time I heard it I thought one of our cats was hurt or stuck somewhere. When I looked for the source, I found Tigger locked in a stare-down with Chris. He had Chris cornered on the top landing of the staircase and surprisingly, was the aggressor in this confrontation.

When I showed up, the distraction gave Chris an exit opportunity and he took it. He bounded down the stairs with Tigger hot on his tail (literally). When they reached the living room, Tigger jumped on Chris and attacked him. I tried to separate them but it was only temporary. Tigger chased him down and attacked him again. Usually once a cat retreats the fight is over but not this time.

It was shocking because Tigger has always been such a nice cat. I know the old saying is true; what goes around, comes around, and Chris definitely was due for something to “come around,” but this was not the play fighting that Chris had annoyed the other cats with for three years. This was an attack by a pissed off cat, and it has repeated several times over the past couple of weeks.

In between the attacks I see the two of them laying together and even washing each other, so I don’t think Tigger has developed a hatred for Chris. I can only assume that he has become grumpy in his old age and Chris is doing something to annoy him (big surprise there), but I have not seen what starts the fights yet so I will have to watch them more closely. Hopefully I won’t have to bring Tigger in for anger management.

Chris’s Stolen Routine

10 Replies

I mentioned this briefly in my post, Jealousy but I wanted to expand on this issue. Chris used to have a routine in the morning of hanging out with Rose in the bathroom while she got ready to start her day. He would lie on the counter in front of her, occasionally grabbing her makeup or whatever else she happened to be using and pulling it up against his chest. Sometimes he would collect three or four things before Rose would be forced to retrieve them. This would go on until she turned on the hair dryer, which was Chris’s cue to make a quick exit.

When we got our kitten Puck, everything changed. Suddenly Puck would be the first one up on the counter and when Chris came up for his routine, he would take one look at Puck and go back downstairs. I felt bad for Chris but Rose found Puck to be a little easier to deal with.

At first Puck would steal a cotton swab, play with it for a while, then come back for another cotton swab. Much of this playing took place on the bathroom floor, so it was not really a problem. Along with the cotton swabs, he also had a particular mouse he liked to play with. Now, while he still plays with cotton swabs from time to time, his mouse has become the center of much annoyance for Rose.

I very much want to get a video of him and his mouse but Rose does not want to be recorded while getting ready for work. Too bad, because nobody would believe it otherwise. Puck jumps on the counter with his mouse and drops it in the basket that Rose has some of her stuff in. He then waits for Rose to throw the mouse in the bedroom. When she does that, Puck races to retrieve the mouse and then brings it back and drops it in the basket again.

This goes on until Rose gets tired of it and stops playing, but when she does that, Puck pushes on her hand and tries to get her to throw the mouse again. You can imagine how difficult it would be to get ready for work that way. The obvious solution would be to turn on the hair dryer and scare him off, but he is not bothered by it in the slightest. Now Rose is longing to have Chris back on the counter with her.

I would like to see that happen too, but dispute the loss of one routine, or perhaps because of it, he has developed another. He now lies on the back of my chair while I write blog posts.

Update: I did get a video of Puck playing fetch. Here it is.

Chris’s Springboard

8 Replies

I mentioned before that Chris likes to get on my shoulders, although my profile picture probably makes that obvious. He does not always want to be there but there are certain times where he will climb up my leg and beg to be picked up. Other times he will jump on the counter and then onto my shoulders. Sometimes he jumps on me when I am not expecting it.

As much as he likes being on my shoulders, there are times when he just wants to use me as a springboard to reach a higher place. He can be like Ricochet Rabbit sometimes. From the floor to the counter to my shoulders and then to the top of the cabinets. Ping, ping, ping! It is these times where he not only surprises me but also digs his claws in me and leaves a mark like I was bitten by a vampire.

Sometime he just rides around on my shoulders while I walk around the house. Eventually he wants to do something else and gets down. Sometimes I walk by something that interests him and he decides to go up instead. This Christmas he was on my shoulders as I started to walk down the stairs from the bedroom. I paused for a second for some reason and Chris noticed the window that is above the stairs, almost to the ceiling. That peaked his interest and up he went.

Chris in Window

View from below

Chris jumping down from Window

I was a little worried that it was a bit high and tried to coax him down but he wouldn’t have it. I eventually decided he would be fine getting down on his own so I left him there. A few days later I had a repeat of Christmas Day and up to the window he went again. I guess now that he knows it’s there he will be doing that all the time. I don’t care. The more things he can find that interest him, the less trouble he will get into. That is assuming those things he finds are trouble-free.

View from outside

Four O’clock Chris

7 Replies

If you are a regular reader, you know that sleeping with Chris in the house can be very difficult. It has been a constant tug-o-war with each side having the advantage until the other side figures out a way to counter it. If you are a new reader, I will put links to some earlier stories about this struggle at the end of this post.

Currently, Chris has not only gained the advantage, but I have run out of ideas to get back to a normal night’s sleep. I feel like my sleep bank is overdrawn and if I don’t make a deposit soon I will get sick and perhaps even fired because I feel tired at work all the time. So far, it hasn’t affected my job, but I know mistakes happen when you are over-tired.

On Christmas Eve I couldn’t keep my eyes open in church. Our pastor is a nice guy and I don’t want him to think that I think he is boring. I was also having trouble keeping my eyes open on Christmas Day when my son and his wife were here. I was actually closing my eyes while he was talking to me. I had to struggle to keep them open.

After finally figuring out how to keep Chris out of the bedroom, I had to abandon it, first because Abbey got sick and then because of our new kitten Puck. For a kitten, he is remarkably well-behaved. Of course he plays and does some things he is not supposed to but he never bothers us at night. He also doesn’t scratch on the furniture or force his way into the cabinets or poop on the floor like a certain gold cat that we know. Because of this, Rose feels bad because to keep Chris out of the bedroom, we also have to keep out Puck and Tigger.

So, for now, he has full access to our bedroom at night, and every morning at four o’clock, he wakes me up. It is a mystery to me how he knows when it is four o’clock but somehow he does. He will get up next to me and either bite my nose or start treading on my bare skin. When this starts, I look at the clock and almost without fail, it is within five minutes of four o’clock.

Last night Rose clipped his nails. I thought that might help me tolerate the treading until he got tired and stopped. That didn’t work. I think having short nails just makes him extend them out farther. I try desperately to block his claws with my hands or the sheet but he just moves to another location. I grab his paws but he pulls away. I push him off the bed but he jumps back on it. I hold him down until I annoy him but he just moves to above my head where I can’t do that.

Sometimes I am succesful in keeping him from treading on my neck or back. When that happens, he pulls at my scalp. Sometimes he grabs my nose or the side of my lips with his claws and pulls. He is trying to get me to turn my head so he can bite my nose. I do not know why he must bite my nose but I do know it is very annoying. Out of frustration, I will sometimes bite his nose, hoping he will get the hint, but he doesn’t.

I think soon I will have to start going to bed at eight o’clock. My senior years are starting early.

Bad Cat Chris

The Baddest Cat You'll Ever Love

Goodbye Tigger – Rest in Peace

Adopt a Bad Cat

…and the Bad Shall Lead

Bad Cat Chris Dominates New Blog

The Bird Tormentor

The Wrath of Tigger

Chris’s Stolen Routine

Chris’s Springboard

Four O’clock Chris

Merry Christmas

Related articles