This came up as a memory on my Facebook page today. It was posted 14 years ago. Clockwise from left: Abbey, Flash, Alex, and Tigger.

I was looking through old photos and found some taken at my sister-in-law Felice’s house and found this photo of Puck before we adopted him.

This was taken on September 1, 2012, and we adopted him on the 15th. Felice often raised stray kittens until they were old enough to be adopted. Puck was one of them. Below, he is with one of Felice’s cats on the same day.

I think this is the last story about adopting Floki.

Sometimes, during the middle of a walk, Frankie will decide that this is a good place for a nap.

This post is from July 6, 2016. We adopted Floki on the Fourth of July that year.

Chris went to the vet yesterday for his infected ear again. They had him on an oral antibiotic which caused him to puke once every five or six times I gave it to him. After the full course, twice, I didn’t notice any difference. I’ve lost count of how many different treatments we tried.

When we arrived at the vet, the office cat, Freddy, was very interested in Chris. He checked out every inch of his carrier. I thought there would be some hissing, but there was not.

A vet tech brought us into the exam room and asked many questions before leaving. I then unzipped Chris, but he was in no hurry to get out of his carrier.

The vet tech came back in with a pair of wildlife gloves. You know, the ones they use for catching alligators. I said, “I see you are preparing for Chris.”

“You can’t be too careful,” she said. She remembered Chris from the last time he was there.

The vet that usually sees Chris only does occasional surgeries there now, so another vet saw Chris this time. She did a basic exam while the tech held Chris with her big alligator gloves. While she was examining Chris, Friddy was sticking his paw under the door. He must have heard Chris howling. I wanted to get a photo of that, but the vet stepped in the way when I tried.

The vet then attempted to clean Chris’s ears. She started with the good ear. After several seconds they were forced to do the burrito wrap on Chris. That lasted about half a second before he burst free and jumped to the ground.

The vet said she wanted to give Chris a little time to calm down, so the vet tech thought she could briefly sneak out of the room. She pushed Chris back with her foot, but she did not realize that Chris was an excellent escape artist in his prime, and he still had those skills available for emergency situations, like vet visits. As soon as the door opened, he was out of there.

She caught Chris and brought him back to the exam room. The vet wanted to check her medication inventory, so I was alone with Chris for a while. At first, he got under an end table. I thought that was weird at first. I mean, it would be easy to pull him out of there. Later I found out that was wrong.

Chris ended up lying under a chair, but when they came back into the room he went under the end table again. I tried to pull him out, but his claws were hooked around the other end of the table, and we had to move it so the vet tech could loosen his death grip. Once we had him, we packed him in his bag, and she brought him to the back where they bring bad kitties. I could hear him screaming from my room.

After almost an hour and a half, they sent us home with an ear medication and instructions on how to order another compounded medication.

On another note, I am still looking for readers willing to review my book. So far I got one from Ellen from 15 and Meowing. Thank you, Ellen. The Kindle version of the book will be free Saturday and Sunday. You can get it here. It is also available in printed form, but I can’t make those free. Thank you in advance.

Here is the next post in Floki’s origin story. This was from July 4, 2016.