Chris’s Final Resting Place

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After waiting a year, I finally spread Chris’s remains in front of our house on the anniversary of his death. It felt good to finally put him to rest.

A year ago, I did not want to spread his remains at our current home because I suspected we would not live there much longer. I was right. We moved into our new home the day after Christmas.

At the time, I thought since he never lived at our new home, it would be more appropriate to spread his ashes at our West Virginia home, where he loved hanging out on the catio. Unfortunately, we had problems from the moment we arrived there at the end of May. I soon felt that we would not own that house for very much longer. I didn’t know we would sell it three months later. I suspected we would put it up for sale at the end of our stay in October, or maybe at the end of our stay the following year. In any case, I decided to bring Chris home to Florida.

My wife came outside with me to take photos. I opened the container. A few ashes came out, then nothing.

I looked inside and saw everything had hardened into one clump.

It felt disrespectful but I tapped the container on the sidewalk several times and tried again. It worked.

It felt wrong to throw away the container, so I dug a hole and buried it in front of our catio.

We have a nice front yard. Our driveway is at the back of the house. The front faces an empty lot that is owned by the six homes in our little association. Our house is at the end, so we also have more room on one side of our house. The original plan when the homes were built in the sixties was to have ten homes surrounding a courtyard. There are several associations just like that down our street. For some unknown reason, four homes were never built, leaving us with a unique natural area in front of our house.

What do you think? Do you like the spot I chose for Chris?

One Year Without Chris

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We lost Chris exactly a year ago on September 7, 2024. Our home has not been the same without him. He was like a feline patriarch. He was the reason our cats slept together.

We don’t see this anymore. Occasionally, Frankie and Floki might be on the bed together, but rarely close.

When I think of Chris, I think of two different eras. There was the skinny era, where Chris caused trouble wherever he went, and he went everywhere. He was able to get on top of things that seemed impossible for any normal cat. He was also able to open almost any door. He even shocked me one day when he came through our locked bedroom door.

Then there was fat Chris. That was when he slowed down and didn’t do the crazy things he used to do. He napped more during those times, which resulted in more photo opportunities like the one above. He was also jealous of Frankie, which I found humorous. I was never sure if he was jealous that Frankie was paying attention to me or that I was paying attention to Frankie.

Chris was the most affectionate cat ever. Unfortunately, that affection involved kneading, which had to be on bare skin. Even though it was painful at times, I miss it.

I even miss the biting.

Chris was one of a kind and will always be missed.

Photo Friday: Time to Relax

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This is the first photo I took of the cats after returning to Florida.

I think they are happy to be back. At least they don’t have to worry about big dogs who want to kill them.

I didn’t tell the story of another dog attack Frankie and I encountered while in West Virginia. It was several days after the pit bull attacked us. We had just walked almost around the block when we passed a vehicle parked on the street two or three houses from our house. The engine was running and there were a couple of people in it along with a big, black dog, similar to the dog next door that wanted to tear down the fence to get at our cats.

After we walked past the vehicle and approached our house, I heard a woman’s voice from behind yelling. I turned and saw the big dog running toward us. I quickly picked up Frankie just before the dog jumped on me, barking and growling. Fortunately, the woman quickly collected the dog before he could do any real harm.

I can only say it is nice to have a little peace again, although I did get stung by something on our walk yesterday.

Our Trip Home – Part Two

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The first half of our trip was relatively uneventful although after a few hours Floki decided he would cry continuously while clawing at the screen on their carrier. Fortunately, he gave up after a while.

I bought them a huge carrier for the trip up that is almost as wide as the car. It also has two pullouts like a modern RV. We put a small litter box on one end which came in handy yesterday. We are bringing home so much stuff, I couldn’t open the pullout near the litter box because we packed more stuff into the car than I thought possible. Even so, they still had plenty of room.

We traveled for eight and a half hours, stopping twice to charge the car and once because my back was hurting and I needed to stretch.

We got up early this morning because Rose wanted to get on the road before the holiday traffic. I brought most everything out to the car, knowing I would have to remove it, put the cat carrier into the car, and then hopefully put everything back in so it fits.

Rose was ready at around quarter to six. Fortunately Floki was already in the carrier so Rose put Frankie in and zipped it up. I put the carrier on a cart and as I pushed the cart out the door I watched Frankie run out the door ahead of me.

That shocked Rose and I. Frankie darted down the hall with me in hot pursuit. He turned down the hallway with the elevators and stopped. He was probably unsure which floor he wanted to go to. That’s when I grabbed him.

We learned later the zipper on the other side was still unzipped. We counted our blessings that Frankie didn’t wait until we got outside to escape.

Floki had two or three crying fits on the way home. We stopped twice to charge the car. While we were stopped we gave the cats some food and water. We also cleaned the litter box. They didn’t use the litter box on the way to West Virginia but they sure did on the way home.

It is now 2:30 and we are twelve miles from home. Once the cats are in the house I will push “publish” on this post and you will know we arrived safely.

Heading Home

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I just wanted to post a quick note saying we are on our way back to Florida. We packed more into our car than I thought possible and were on the road a few minutes before seven.

We will stay in Orangeburg, South Carolina, which is around the halfway point. We will probably get there before three. If we didn’t have the cats with us we would probably push it and go farther but they will need to get out of their carrier and use the litter box. The carrier is quite large and we did put a small litter box in it but they didn’t use it on the way up here.

We signed our closing documents for the house yesterday and the buyers will sign late this afternoon. Hopefully all goes well and we can close this chapter of our lives.

Two More Days

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Our house is under contract, and if all goes well, it will close on Friday. We won’t be here then. As the sellers, we will close on Wednesday afternoon, and the buyers will close two days later. Our plan is to get out of Dodge on Thursday morning. Of course, there is a lot to do before leaving, so we will get out later than we would like, but at least we will soon be back home to a simpler life with fewer worries.

We haven’t told Frankie and Floki yet. We thought we would surprise them. Frankie might be a little disappointed after meeting a new friend a few houses away, but once we get home, he will be able to see the girl Frankie again who lives next door.