Just thought I would show you another video that shows how different Chris is from other cats. Most cats run and hide when you get the vacuum cleaner out. Not Chris; he just watches, probably thinking how lucky he is that he doesn’t have to clean up cat hair.
I just finished the second draft of my Bad Cat Chris book for Kindle. Much of the content is from this blog but there is also a lot of added material. I would like a few volunteers to read what I have and advise me of any corrections needed as well as any advice on any improvements that can be made. I am not a professional author so any help would be appreciated.
The book is a little over 23,000 words so it is not too long of a read. If you can help, please email me at: “me at charleshuss.com.” Please forgive the cryptic email but I get enough spam.
What do you think of the cover? I think I need to make the title more visible so it can be seen as a thumbnail.
Chris on my lap – Not my best photograph but…
As I write this, Chris is napping on my lap. Oops… I disturbed him reaching for my phone to photograph him. I was able to get one bad picture before he disappeared.
There is a point to mentioning this. Chris has sought more attention from Rose and I since Tigger passed away. That is not to say he didn’t want attention before, it just seems like he has become even more needy lately.
Chris has always sought attention from other cats and received it. Usually he would lie down on top of or between two other cats, who would at first be annoyed with him but then would settle into washing his ears or something. This happened often with Tigger and Abbey who would be sleeping together and then would be suddenly awakened by Mr. Rudeness himself.
Now, all the cats we introduced Chris to three and a half years ago are gone. Tigger, Abbey, Alex and Flash have all passed away. We now have only Chris and our newest cat, Puck. The problem is, while Puck is a good cat, he prefers to sleep alone. He will play (fight) with Chris, which the other cats wouldn’t do, but he won’t sleep with him, so Chris has turned his attention to us when nap time comes around, which, for Chris, is not very often.
We feel bad for him and have even considered getting another cat but there are many problems with that idea. Someday we want to live in a motorhome and/or a boat and travel a bit. When that happens, we won’t have room for more than two cats. Even before that happens we may rent a small place near the beach and the same reasoning will apply. Also, we have no way to be sure the new cat will even like Chris. Judging from experience, that would probably be no.
Yesterday, Chris climbed to the top of the of the cat perch and lied on top of Puck and started washing his ears. This went on for a minute or two and Rose and I were hopeful that this would be their first nap together, but Puck then got up and left the perch, leaving Chris there by himself. So sad.
Perhaps as Puck matures a little more, things will change. We can only hope.
Related Article:
https://badcatchris.com/2012/07/04/top-cat-chris/
I recently started a new blog at JustFurLaughs.com. It is dedicated to funny captioned animal photos. I am trying to get a new photo up everyday and I find myself looking hard to find a funny one without Chris in it. I have a great stockpile of cat photos as well as other animals but it seems like Chris stands out as the one usually involved in funny behavior.
I will give you a sneak peek at two photos that I have not published yet but are scheduled to appear in the next few days. Enjoy.
The following was meant to be published last August so it is out of sequence. I just happened to notice today that it was marked as a draft. Oops
Chris enjoying sunshine while looking out window
Considering that cats tend to nap most of the day away, Chris is no ordinary cat. He is usually looking for trouble to get into while Abbey and Tigger are snoozing. That being said, there are times when he will relax. When we lived in the condo, he would often lay on the spare bed and look out the window. This was a favorite spot for all the cats.
Mocking bird finds Bad Cat Chris
One day a mockingbird spotted Chris in the window and started hovering just outside, trying to intimidate him to leave. This of course just caused him to become more interested in the bird.
Chris tries to catch bird – notice wings on left
This went on for a couple of weeks, sometimes several times a day. A few times I had the window open a few inches and Chris would slide his body between the glass and the screen in a vain attempt to get the bird. I had to keep the window shut because I was afraid he would push the screen out and fall from the third floor.
The funniest part of all that was the bird only picked on Chris. When Tigger and Abbey were laying there, the bird was nowhere in sight. I suppose this might have been a mother bird protecting a nearby nest and to her, Chris just looked like trouble. Only Chris could cause problems by looking out the window.
Mockingbird Tormentor returns
I do know that mocking birds can be pretty mean for their size. I have regularly seen them chasing larger crows and even an Osprey. Rose said when she was young she had an outside cat that lived in fear because a mockingbird would attack it every chance it could. She thought it was payback for something bad that the cat did but I think the cat’s territory just overlapped with the bird’s.
Eventually the bird stopped bothering Chris. It was around June so I suppose it was nesting season and once the young birds were out of the nest, there was no reason to protect it.
I mentioned before that Chris likes to get on my shoulders, although my profile picture probably makes that obvious. He does not always want to be there but there are certain times where he will climb up my leg and beg to be picked up. Other times he will jump on the counter and then onto my shoulders. Sometimes he jumps on me when I am not expecting it.
As much as he likes being on my shoulders, there are times when he just wants to use me as a springboard to reach a higher place. He can be like Ricochet Rabbit sometimes. From the floor to the counter to my shoulders and then to the top of the cabinets. Ping, ping, ping! It is these times where he not only surprises me but also digs his claws in me and leaves a mark like I was bitten by a vampire.
Sometime he just rides around on my shoulders while I walk around the house. Eventually he wants to do something else and gets down. Sometimes I walk by something that interests him and he decides to go up instead. This Christmas he was on my shoulders as I started to walk down the stairs from the bedroom. I paused for a second for some reason and Chris noticed the window that is above the stairs, almost to the ceiling. That peaked his interest and up he went.
Chris in Window
View from below
Chris jumping down from Window
I was a little worried that it was a bit high and tried to coax him down but he wouldn’t have it. I eventually decided he would be fine getting down on his own so I left him there. A few days later I had a repeat of Christmas Day and up to the window he went again. I guess now that he knows it’s there he will be doing that all the time. I don’t care. The more things he can find that interest him, the less trouble he will get into. That is assuming those things he finds are trouble-free.
View from outside
Chris and his family want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday season.
Rose and I discussed getting a playmate for Chris since shortly after we got him. He has so much energy and always wants to play, but until recently our other cats didn’t want to play with him. That changed when we got our new kitten, Puck. He has turned out to be a great playmate for Chris. They spend a good part of the day pouncing on each other or chasing each other. Sometimes I even see them washing each other.
There is, however, a darker side of this relationship: jealousy. Whenever puck comes to Rose or me for attention, Chris is sure to show up seconds later. occasionally the opposite happens. Puck will come to us second and then Chris will leave, presumably in disgust.
Keep in mind that I have a hard enough time trying to figure people out so interpreting the behavior of another species could be beyond my ability. Nevertheless, I feel Chris is the Alpha male in the house and he feels threatened by the kitten.
I have seen behavior from Chris that is different now than it was before Puck showed up. For example, he sometimes will grab Puck or Tigger by the scruff of the neck and hold them down for an extended period, as if he is reminding them who is the boss.
There is also something that he does not do that somewhat bothers me. Rose gets ready for work every morning by sitting at the counter in the bathroom. Chris used to lay on the counter while she got ready. He was somewhat of a nuisance for her but also a source of entertainment. He would lie there and grab her makeup or whatever he could get his paws on and pull it toward him.
Now Puck has taken over his spot so Chris usually just avoids the bathroom in the morning. That makes me feel bad because that was part of his routine that was taken away from him. Of course, Chris could easily take that spot back if he wanted to, so I am not sure why I feel bad about it. Perhaps it is because he does not want to take it back.
Puck takes over Chris’s spot
All things considered, Chris is generally a happy cat and I believe puck has added to his life more than he has taken. Eventually, Chris will reestablish his dominance and all will be right with the world. Well…maybe not the world.
Late in 2011 we decided to move out of our waterfront condo and live where Rose works. Part of the reason for doing that was to save about $400 a month. The other reason was for convenience. Since Rose managed the property that we were moving to, she would not have to drive to work and she could better keep an eye on the property. It also cut in half my drive to work and eventually led to me being able to ride my bicycle there. (See newlybent.wordpress.com)
It was also better for the cats. I don’t think they appreciated the waterfront view as much as we did. What they wanted, especially Chris, was to go outside. Well, that wasn’t an option, but the new place had a screened in patio that the condo did not have.
We spent weeks packing, during which time our home was basically turned upside-down. The cats knew something was going on but they have been through moves before and did not seem too stressed about it. Abbey and Tigger had been through three moves with us and who knows how many more before we adopted them. Chris had moved once with us but he was also transferred from one shelter to another before we found him. In addition, he was adopted and then returned.
When the movers came, we had to put the cats in the bathroom until they were finished. They were not happy about that. Abbey and Tigger stayed relatively quiet but Chris wanted out and was not shy about letting us know.
Our new apartment is one of the few townhomes that are on the property. It has two floors with the master bedroom upstairs and another bedroom downstairs. I had a plan to finally keep Chris out of the bedroom so we could sleep. I bought a plastic runner and cut it to fit just right under the bedroom door so he couldn’t dig up the carpet. I thought since he was not accustomed to being in the bedroom at night, he wouldn’t miss it.
That plan made perfect sense in theory but I didn’t anticipate Rose feeling bad for the cats after putting them through another move. This of course meant that we had to continue to put up with Chris in the bedroom at night. I tried using my plastic runner a few days later but since he knew what he was missing he sat outside the door crying and digging. He quickly realized he couldn’t did through the plastic so he did the next best thing, he started digging at carpet next to the plastic. I think he knows he can’t dig his way into the room; he just wants to annoy us enough to open the door.
I added the objects on the sides because he was digging next to the plastic.
Even with the brick in the way, Chris finds a way to ruin the carpet.
I thought we could put a litter box on the patio and put him out at night but Rose vetoed that idea. I think she was afraid a visitor would smell poop when they came to visit, or worse, she would smell it.
Eventually we found something that changed everything, but that is a story for another time, so I hope you keep reading.
Even though Chris is a bad cat he has a few good qualities. Besides being the entertainer in the house, he also keeps our home relatively bug free. To be honest, Tigger deserves partial credit for that but Tigger is more of a spotter, Chris is a take action kind of cat. Weather Chris spots an invader first or Tigger, it doesn’t matter, Chris is on it like a fly on…well, lets just say he is extremely focused.
It is funny to watch him too because he doesn’t just catch insects, spiders, lizards or whatever other small creature enters our house, he has to play them. He keeps them alive for a while and watches them, when they try to escape, he corrals them with his paw.
More than once I saw him catch a fly and play with it like that. Somehow he knows how to disable the fly’s ability to fly away. I have even seen him play with it in one room, pick it up with his mouth and move it to another room and continue to play with it then move it to a third room before eating it. I used the term “play” but I am sure the fly didn’t see it that way.
Flies, at least, have a chance, not so with cockroaches, at least not for the ones he sees. Fortunately he doesn’t eat those or I would really be grossed out, but he does leave them as a present. That’s okay. I would rather pick up a dead roach than know there is a live one lurking around.
Bad Cat Chris 