My wife put a wicker table on the catio a while ago, and it has become Frankie’s new favorite spot. Floki’s favorite spot is near where you see him in this photo. Apparently, they want to be where the neighbor’s dog can see them and get all riled up.
Frankie’s second favorite spot is near the house, but also on the catio. In fact, he spends nearly the entire day on the catio, only coming in to use the litter box and eat.
This post is from September 2016. Puck was a well-behaved cat except for his issues of pooping and peeing outside the box. The peeing was caused by a bladder issue, which led to his untimely death despite being treated for the condition.
We decided this would be our last summer in our West Virginia home.
While we love the house, we have never spent more than two months here until now. We’ve come to realize that it is great to escape the hustle and bustle of living in a densely populated area in Florida, but only for a little while. The truth is, it’s boring here. It’s usually a 45-minute drive to do anything halfway interesting.
Add the fact that there is so much work to be done on the house this year. It feels like a money pit. We spent $22,000 on a new roof alone. We also spent about $450 to repair our stove and had to purchase a new dishwasher, among other things.
I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Rose was bit on the foot by a brown recluse spider. She developed a terrible, itchy, and painful rash all over her leg and other parts of her body. She went to the doctor three times trying to get relief. It finally subsided after more than two weeks.
What bothers me is the fact that I worry about the cats more here. Today, the neighbor’s dog was again outside desperately trying to break through the fence to get at Frankie.
We listed it last Wednesday. So far, we have had two couples look at it. The second is talking to their bank about it, and the first wants to see it again tomorrow. I put a sign on the door informing people to watch out for Frankie.
Now comes the challenge of getting rid of everything we brought here or bought for the place. We will bring some back to Florida, but our house there is tiny in comparison.
My wife wanted to give away one of the cat trees because nobody uses it anymore, so I put it in the laundry room, which is where we put things destined to leave the house. When Floki saw it in there, he climbed to the top and loudly protested its eventual departure.
Here is a post from September 2016, before Chris started giving all his vets and vet techs a hard time.
We all know that when outside cats fight, it can get brutal, but what about when inside cats fight? I don’t know about all inside cats, but at our house, it’s pretty tame. The exception would be the early fights between Chris and Frankie when Frankie first joined our family, and one other fight a year or two later between those two. It was so bad that we had to separate them between a closed door.
Other than that, fights at our house are more like roughhousing. Sometimes it seems they are fighting in slow motion. For example, here is Frankie and Floki last night.
Do your cats fight? If so, how do they fight?
I was putting mulch down around our pear tree the other day when a bird showed up and started tweeting to me. I think it was a robin but it wasn’t colorful. I thought maybe I was working around its nest but I didn’t see one.
I put my finger out and almost touched it but I didn’t want it to fly away so I withdrew my hand. I took a video of it and posted it on Facebook. Someone told me it was a fledgling and was probably kicked out of the nest by the mother. That made me think of that children’s book, “Are You My Mother.”
Here is another post from September 2016 about how cats are not as graceful as people think.
Our stuff finally arrived from the moving company after they held it hostage for 38 days. Rose called them every other day for the last two weeks and got one promise after another. She was convinced we would never see our stuff, and that was a big stress factor for her. For me, there was only one thing on the truck that I would grieve over losing: Chris’s ashes.
His remains are here on my desk now.
My original plan was to spread his ashes in the backyard near the catio here. A place he enjoyed hanging out. Now, I feel I should bring him back to Florida and spread his ashes outside the catio there. Rose thinks that is a bad idea because he has never lived there. My concern is we may not own this house for very much longer and I prefer Chris to be near us.
I know it is not really Chris. I don’t really think his spirit hangs out where his ashes are. It is just symbolic. It would be nice to look out and know Chris is out there, or at least part of him.
There are two reasons why I don’t think we will own this house for a long time. First, we had discussed selling it at some point and using the proceeds to buyto pay down our Florida mortgage.
The second reason is more complicated. We have been working nonstop on this house since we arrived. It’s like a money pit, but it has been rented for over three years, so that’s part of it. We don’t expect it to be as much work next year, but it is an old house.
There was also the stress of our stuff in limbo and then there was the “incident.” A little over two weeks ago on a Saturday, Rose was outside with me helping to do yard work. Foolishly, she was wearing shorts and flipflops like she was in Florida.
Afterward, she noticed two bite marks on her foot, like she was bitten by a snake. Later, there were what appeared to be numerous minor marks on her body, resembling insect bites. She was convinced our house had fleas, but I was not affected, and neither were our cats. She had terrible itching for over a week and a half. During that time, she went to the doctor three times while her symptoms continued to worsen. It was determined she was probably bitten by a brown recluse spider, and her itching caused a bacterial infection to spread. Only during the last couple of days have the symptoms started to diminish.
I know this is a very wordy explanation, but the point is that during those dark days, she kept saying she hated it here and wanted to return to Florida. Now that she is getting better, she is more receptive to staying here, but I still feel that we are far more likely to grow old in Florida, so I think I would like Chris to be there too.
I’m sorry for the late post but I have been forgetting everything today. Here is a picture of Frankie on the catio today.
He seems to like lying in that area. He obviously feels very comfortable. It is very hot and humid but Frankie doesn’t care. He wants to be on the catio all day.
Bad Cat Chris 