The weather has been pretty nice here lately so I opened one of the windows in the cats’ room. They can see fine with shut windows but having one open, even a crack, lets all the smells in. Opening it further would only risk someone pushing out the screen.
I missed a good picture of Frankie standing on the edge of the litter box so he could stick his nose out the window. Chris was napping in the living room and never noticed it.
Frankie was being quite the pest yesterday and Rose asked me to put some food down for the cats, but I knew it wasn’t food he was looking for. I put my shoes on and announced that I was going to take Frankie for a walk. As I was heading into the bedroom, Rose was hyping Frankie up by loudly saying, “Are you gonna go outside, Frankie? Are you gonna go outside?” This, of course, got Frankie all excited and he followed me into the bedroom, meowing up a storm. When I pulled the harness out of my drawer, he really got excited.
As soon as Frankie gets outside the excitement goes away and he becomes very focused. After taking time to smell the air we walked across the street and stopped to eat some grass, or whatever this is.
We then found a nice patch of ground to stretch out and get some sun.
Then a little shade was in order.
I stood there for a long time waiting for Frankie to decide what he wanted to do. To my surprise, he fell asleep.
I hated to wake him up but I couldn’t just stand there in the sun and wait for his nap to be over. I knelt down and very gently petted him. That woke him up and he hissed at me and scratched my hand, making it bleed in three places.
I then picked him up and brought him home. He had been out for about forty-five minutes and Chris was home waiting for his turn. Surprisingly, Frankie let me carry him home without giving me a hard time.
When we got home, I let Chris out and stayed with him. He decided to eat some grass as soon as he got outside.
He then spent some time in the sun.
After fifteen minutes I decided that I should go in and wash the cut on my hand. I picked Chris up and he decided to turn around as I was lifting him up. I think he planned on climbing onto my shoulders but he just ended up putting a gash in my stomach. Well, at least I was going in to clean one wound so what’s one more?
Someone bought my power tower yesterday which freed up space in our Florida room to really make it a cat room.
About the only things in the room now that is not for cats is my desk and Rose’s rocking chair, which Chris loves, so I guess it is it for cats too.
Today marks twelve years since we adopted Chris. He has been with me longer than any other pet I have ever had and has become such an integral part of this family that I can’t imagine what life would be like without him.
I met Chris while volunteering at a shelter in Myrtle Beach called Save-R-Cats. They were in the local PetSmart on a rotating basis and I went in one morning before work to clean the cages. I let all of the cats out of the top row of cages while I cleaned them. Suddenly, a kitten, about four or five months old, jumped from the floor onto my back and clawed his way up to my shoulders. He then proceeded to nibble on my ear and then on my nose. That kitten, of course, was Chris.
We didn’t adopt him right away. At some point, he was adopted and then returned the next day because of his bad behavior, although I don’t remember when that occurred.
Sometime later my wife came from the shelter and met Chris. That meeting went pretty well.
Still, we didn’t adopt him because we were not ready. We had a cruise coming up and my wife had a business trip to go on after the cruise. While she was on that trip, I went to the shelter and saw that Chris was not only still there, but he also climbed up onto my shoulders again. A shelter worker took a picture of me and Chris with my phone, which had a bad camera even for 2009 standards.
I sent the picture to my wife with the text, “Can we keep him?” I think she agreed but I wanted to wait for her to get home from her trip so we can make the decision together. That way, if Chris turned out to be a bad cat, it wouldn’t be totally my fault.
When Rose returned, we went to the shelter one more time to see Chris before making a decision. Once there, we couldn’t go home without him.
When Chris got to our house he immediately took over to the surprise of our other four cats.
The next few years were pretty difficult as we dealt with problems such as Chris pooping where he shouldn’t, getting on the counters, opening doors he should not be able to open, bothering us while we were sleeping, trying to escape, digging the carpet and I’m sure many other things I can’t think of right now. But during this time we also knew that he was worth it because, besides being a constant source of entertainment, he was probably the most loving being this Earth has ever seen.
While Chris can still be quite annoying, he doesn’t get into as much trouble as he used to. What hasn’t changed is the love. Chris is a shining example of pure love in physical form.
I took Frankie out for a walk on Wednesday because it was a beautiful day and because he was bothering me to go outside. It’s hard to resist Frankie when he follows me around the house meowing at me.
Shortly after we got outside the community housing salesperson stopped his golf cart to talk to me. I tried to hold Frankie back but he wanted to go, and you can’t hold a cat back like you can a dog. At least not Frankie, anyway. The harness I have has a flaw in the design that allows a cat to escape if he pulls backwards hard enough. Since the harness is so easy to put on, I don’t want to get rid of it so I just try to avoid those situations.
My plan was to pick up Frankie and hold him but that didn’t work so I thought if I put him on the golf cart seat he might stay for at least a minute or two but that made him even more nervous. It occurred to me later that maybe he thought I was giving him away. Since I couldn’t stand around and talk, I told him I would just talk to him later.
We continued on and when we got up near the pool Frankie decided to do some sunbathing. Perhaps he saw people at the pool doing this.
After a while I had to pick him up and bring him home. As usual, he was not happy about this, but it was Chris’s turn to go out.
Chris spent some time enjoying the sun and then, of course, he had to eat a little grass too. When it was time to go in, he got under my truck again but this time far enough to where I couldn’t reach him to pick him up.
This may seem like a Frankie trick but actually Chris invented this years ago.
Here is a photo from November 11, 2005, of Tigger, Alex, and Abbey looking out the front door. I do not remember what was going on at this time but I like to imagine someone is coming to the door and they are there to greet them.
Here is another post from 2015 for Throwback Thursday. Again, Frankie got up on the roof. This is why I walk him with a leash and harness now.
We let the cat’s outside for their weekly romp in the backyard. Puck immediately caught a lizard and then brought it in the house. That distracted me long enough for Frankie to run up the palm tree and get on the roof, and again I missed recording it. At least now I know how he did it.
Frankie then led me on a wild goose chase around the neighborhood while Chris was busy investigating our neighbor’s patio. In other words, it was a typical day.
Since my wife is away and since I just clipped Chris’s claws, I decided to let the cats sleep with me Monday night. Of course, that was a mistake. I should have known.
Chris started bothering me sometime before 3 AM. I suppose I should have been grateful that he lasted that long. If I was smart, I would have picked him up and put him out of the bedroom but I was just too tired to get up. He continued bothering me, on and off, (mostly on) until sometime after 5 a.m. when I decided that I had enough and I got out of bed.
I fed them breakfast, made coffee, and did a couple of other things and then went back in the bedroom and saw this.
I guess it was mission accomplished so no longer need to stay awake.
Chris was sitting on my lap yesterday evening when he reached up to stick his claws into my skin like he often does but this time his claws got stuck in my neck and I had to reach over and pull them out. I was highly annoyed, as well as in pain, and I said, “Okay, Chris, enough is enough.” I then picked him up and carried him to the bedroom.
The “enough” I was referring to was me allowing his nails to get so long and sharp. The reason I carried him into the bedroom was because my wife keeps the nail clippers in her nightstand drawer. She clips the cat’s nails about eighty percent of the time but she is away on a business trip so I did it.
Chris was amazingly good for me this time. He did not try to pull his paw away, even when I had trouble seeing some of his nails. After I finished, he made a point of washing his paws.
Last year while fitness centers were still on lockdown, I purchased what is called a Power Tower as a way to work out at home. This one had the added benefit of having a retractable workout bench.
The room was pretty cramped until we brought the chairs to West Virginia. Then I was able to put the bench down so Frankie could use it.
The truth is, like most home workout equipment, it rarely got used. Rarely by me but Frankie loved hanging out on the bench. It was long enough for him to stretch out on and high enough to see what was going on outside. When we started going to the gym again, the bench and tower went from rarely being used to never being used, except by Frankie.
Now that we are back, and with us came a boatload of stuff from the other house, Rose is insisting that I sell it to make room for her new rocking chair that we brought with us. This time I had no defense and posted it for sale. Sorry, Frankie.
Bad Cat Chris 