When we moved back to Florida, Chris’s talent for opening doors flourished.
He also like being high up in the air.
One of the cute things he did was hang out with Rose while she got ready in the morning and put her makeup on.
Next time I’ll talk about his lizard catching ability.
As most of you know, we lost Chris Saturday afternoon. We knew his time with us was limited but we still hoped for at least another year. I at least thought he would see his fifteenth Gotch Day in November.
I am grateful to the many people who reached out and offered prayers when they learned Chris was not doing well, and condolences after he passed. As most of you know, losing a beloved pet is very difficult but knowing there are people who really care about you softens the blow.
I would like to thank Ann from Zoolatry for first creating this graphic when she learned Chris wasn’t doing well.
A few hours later she made this beautiful memorial for Chris.
I thought this would be a good time to take a stroll down memory lane, starting with the first two known photos of Chris taken October 3, 2009, when I talked my wife into coming into the shelter where I volunteered to meet Chris.
We didn’t adopt him then. We had a cruise coming up in October and then Rose had to go to a managers meeting. In the meantime, Chris was adopted by someone else. He annoyed his first adoptive parents so much that they returned him the next day. The fact that a five to six-month-old kitten could not get adopted was unusual and lucky for us as well as Chris, because I don’t know many people who could have put up with him in those early years.
Here is a video of him when we brought him home. We didn’t do what we should have done and introduce him to our cats slowly. Instead, we let him loose and he immediately took over. As you can see, Chris was not a shy cat.
I believe this is the first photo I have of him in our new home.
Three hours later he cozied up to Rose on the sofa.
He quickly became friendly with our other cats. Our black cat, Flash, is not in this picture, nor do I have a photo of him with Chris. It’s too bad because he died the following April.
Chris would often insert himself where he wasn’t invited.
While he could be highly annoying to both cats and people, he was also funny and entertaining.
He could also be very cute.
What stood out the most about Chris was his affectionate nature. He was always a very touchy-feely cat. He was the only cat I ever knew that liked to be hugged.
Of course, there were plenty of things he did to earn the name Bad Cat Chris.
Chris was with us for almost fifteen years. There is way too much to remember in one post. I will post part two soon.
We had to make the difficult decision to let Chris go today.
I am sitting alone in the vet’s parking lot. I am not in a mental state to drive just yet. My wife is in Tampa preparing for a cruise with her managers. She offered to come back but I told her not to.
I will write more but not now.
Just before noon, my wife noticed Chris under the dining room table. He was breathing hard and was lying in urine.
I immediately called our vet but they close at noon and didn’t answer the phone. Instead I brought him to the emergency vet.
They brought him to the back but didn’t want me to go with. They said he has fluid in his lungs. They put him on oxygen and will attempt to remove the fluid. If that is successful, they will go over the next steps.
I don’t usually ask for prayers but they would be appreciated now.
Frankie jumped up into a tree the other day. I assume he was chasing a squirrel I never saw. Apparently, he is giving the squirrel a raspberry, although, since he missed the squirrel, it should be the other way around.
This post was from September of 2016. He went in for an eye infection, but we learned about the infection in his ear, which has never really gone away because of his ear polyps.
Need I say more?
There is a ginger cat that lives on the on the other end of the block and one street behind us. We walked by there the Sunday before last and Frankie decided to show the cat that he did not recognize his territory by sunning himself right in front of his house. It was like he was daring the ginger to do something about it.
Here is a post from 2016 that I had forgotten about. I miss Puck.
We are so lucky that we have cats that like each other . . . mostly. Here are Chris and Floki hanging out together yesterday.
