Tag Archives: cabinet

Chris Remembers His Youth

I stopped working three of my four jobs before moving to our new home but I feel like I now have less time than ever. This post, for example, probably should have been written two weeks ago.

I don’t remember what prompted me to pick up Chris and put him on my shoulders like I did when he was young. Perhaps he “asked” me to pick him up by clawing at my leg. However it happened, he ended up on my shoulders just before I walked from the kitchen to the dining room. Along the way, I passed the China Cabinet. If anyone has been reading this blog long enough to have seen the post named Chris’s Springboard could probably guess what happened next.

Chris used me as a springboard and jumped to the top of the China Cabinet.

I was surprised Chris was able to get up there given his age and weight but he seemed to manage just fine. I’m not sure then why I have to pick him up when he wants to get on my lap.

Since it is “kitty see kitty do” in our house Frankie also had to get on my shoulders and then up onto the China cabinet.

Next up was Floki. He got on my shoulders but was too scared to make the leap onto the cabinet. He does have a reputation for being a bit of a scaredy cat and this did not help it.

Chris has slowed down these last couple of years but it is good to know he still has some of that youthful spirit in him.

Photo Friday: The New King of Heights

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This was supposed to be last week’s post but I just realized I accidently published it as a page instead of a post. Oops.

I used to write about How Chris would manage to get up into almost impossible locations in our house (see here and here and here). Now he is more than ten years old and a few pounds heavier than he used to be. He also seems to have developed a bit of arthritis. Lately, I have to help him onto my lap sometimes.

Chris may be somewhat grounded but Frankie hasn’t lost a step. He is now going places that only Chris would have gone before.

Here he is on top of our cabinet. The height of the jump isn’t as impressive as the accuracy needed since it is a very narrow space and it seems like it would be easy to bang your head on the ceiling.

Who else has a cat that reaches for the sky?

The Badness Continues

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My post last week talked about how Chris can still be bad despite his age and weight and about him getting up in the cabinet to eat the flavor packet that came with the NomNomNow food. Now that the flavor packet is gone he is still getting up in the cabinet.

I think he was looking for it but when he realized it was no longer there he spied the container of catnip.

Naturally, as a punishment, I gave him some catnip.

This morning I went out for a bit and returned to find the catnip on the counter. I guess he struggled to get it open and then gave up without even trying to hide what he had done.

Chris Can Still Be a Bad Cat

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Chris has slowed down these last couple of years, partly because of age, I suspect, but mostly because he has gained weight. Still, he sometimes surprises me by being his old, bad self.

Last Friday I was cooking dinner when Chris jumped on the kitchen counter. He then opened the cabinet and started rummaging through it. Since we have a small kitchen, I have some cat related items and other things sharing space with our dishes. There are feline supplements, premix for the raw cat food that I make, and a container of catnip, among other things.

I thought he was after the catnip but that was on the second shelf and he was clearly interested in the first shelf. I looked at what he was looking at and found a ziplock bag with flavoring that came with my order from NomNomNow. Someone already chewed through the original packaging which is why it was in a ziplock bag. The flavoring helps to get finicky cats used to the new kind of food but our cats never needed an incentive to eat it so I just put it in the cabinet. I put the bag on the top shelf above the bag of Tostito’s that was up there. I figured it was way out of his reach.

The next morning we went out for a little while and when we returned I found the bag of flavoring mostly empty on the counter and the Tostito’s with a hole in the side of it.

Apparently, I underestimated his current ability to be bad.

Cabinets are a Gateway Drug

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You may remember a post from last month when Frankie leaped from the counter to the top of the bathroom door. Before that he had figured out how to stand on the toilet and open the cabinet where our linens are kept. Once the door was open, he was able to jump into the cabinet, despite the awkward angle. I guess the thrill of getting into the cabinet was short-lived and he needed to set his sights higher.

The other day Frankie had let himself into the cabinet and our kitten Floki was going crazy with jealousy. Just to see what would happen (and to get him to stop crying) I put Flokie on the shelf above Frankie. That got Chris’s attention and he jumped on the shelf with Frankie. I decided it was time to grab my camera but Frankie had enough and jumped down before I returned.

Because nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, Puck had to join in to see what was going on.

After giving Puck a whack or two, Floki redirected his attention to bigger and better things.

Getting into a cabinet might be the goal of some cats but others need more. Floki had much higher aspirations.

To stand on top of two doors is quite an accomplishment but Frankie did one door and Floki was not going to be beat.

“Ta-Da!” Mission accomplished! Now Dad had to get him down. Of course, he wasn’t happy about that and had to start over from the bottom.

Puck was content to be a bystander.

Since he started on the second shelf last time, he had a bit of trouble figuring out how to get back there. This is when mean ol’ Dad decided to pull funding for the expedition and cut the adventure short. What is a cat parent to do?

The Explorers

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Even though Chris is older and more “mature” he still looks for trouble wherever he can find it. Sometimes he is a bad influence on the other cats.

A New Level of Badness

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“If this behavior continues, I will take that cat to the animal shelter so fast your head will spin!” Yes, those words actually came out of Rose’s mouth on Thursday morning. She wouldn’t really do that but she was very angry, and rightfully so.

To explain, I need to back up this story to last weekend when we got new furniture for our patio. We got a sofa/sleeper along with a baker’s rack and a dinette set. The sofa came with a sign in cat language that said, “SCRATCH ME,” so Chris and Frankie complied.

I covered it with a blanket and a couple of towels over the arms, not just because of the scratching but also to keep it clean and free of cat hair. When guests would come for a visit, we could remove the covers and they could wonder how we keep it so clean with three cats.

The covers didn’t completely stop the scratching. Chris would get under the towel and scratch the edge. That prompted Rose to buy a product called 3M Petcare scratch protection film, which is basically wide packing tape for ten times the cost. I put in on the corners and have not seen any cat scratch there since then.

Rose must have decided that the blanket was ugly so she folded it in half and placed it over the top of the couch only, leaving the seat cushions exposed. By now you probably see where I am going with this.

Thursday morning I did my usual chores. I gave the cat’s wet food, made coffee, scooped the boxes, swept the litter, put down fresh water and dry food, etc. Shortly before we were to leave for work, Rose walked onto the patio and said, “It smells like poop out here!” For this story, I have decided to substitute the word “poop” for another word.

“Can’t you smell that? Someone has pooped out here!” I did clean the boxes but they do tend to use them when they are clean.

“Oh my God! There is poop on the couch! Chris has pooped on my brand new sofa!”

Sure enough, there was a pile of poop on the seat cushion. That was bad enough, but instead of a nice hard poop that would be easy to clean, this was like soft serve ice cream. What a mess.

Chris has long had a problem with pooping outside the box but that problem went away two years ago when we moved into our last home. He always had a chronic loose stool but around the same time he stopped pooping on the floor, his poops got better too. I hope this doesn’t cause Chris to fall off the wagon.

To make matters worse, we hired a painter to paint our cabinets. He was here Wednesday and removed all our cabinet doors and drawers and brought them to his house to sand and paint them. With no doors, Chris was in the cabinet with our food, probably looking for treats or catnip. That happened right after he was yelled at for pooping.

I had enough and yelled at him and tried to pull him out but he put up heavy resistance. I finally got him out and finished getting ready for work. When I was leaving, I gave him a little pet goodby and he growled at me. I pet him again and he growled some more.

I don’t know why but I was actually upset about it on the way to work, even though I wasn’t the bad guy.

Photo Friday: Relaxing in the Penthouse

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Getting on top of tall things like the china cabinet has always been Chris’s area of expertise. Puck usually just watched as Chris traveled the upper reaches of our home like Tarzan swinging through the vines. But he did more then watch; he learned. Now Puck is able to get on top of the china cabinet like an old pro. He even climbed inside one of Rose’s baskets one day so we decided to turn it on its side and now it is like a little penthouse with a view. It seems to be his second favorite place to be, right behind the top of the couch overlooking our living room window.

Of course, one cat can’t do something interesting without the other getting jealous and wanting to join in. So was the case this day when Chris spotted Puck in his “penthouse” and wanted to see if there was anything he could do to annoy him. In the end, Chris got bored and was off to a new adventure, leaving Puck alone to enjoy some peace and quiet.

Dad! Tell him its my turn!

I’ll wait ’till you’re done.

I can’t wait. I have things to do.

Was it something I said?

Alone at last.

Chris Takes the High Ground

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Chris on kitchen cabinet

Cats, by nature, seem to like being up high. I suppose it is the predator instinct and it is no more obvious than in a cat like Chris. I mentioned before that he likes getting on top of things and our new apartment seemed like it was built with him in mind.

For starters, our kitchen cabinets do not go to the ceiling so there is a gap above them that Chris loves to get into. he usually jumps on the counter, then to the refrigerator and from there it is an easy step up. Sometimes he will leap from the fridge to the cabinets on the opposite side. I worry that he will miss and hurt himself but so far, so good.

I don’t know how he does this

Then there is the handrail at the upstairs landing, it overlooks the living room and is about 12 to 15 feet above the floor. It is only about an inch and a half wide and I often see him jumping up on the railing.

There is also the china cabinet. He would get up there when we were in the living room watching television. I think he may do that to show us how bad he can be. To get up there he jumps on Rose’s chair, then to the fire-place mantle and then up on top of the cabinet.

Bad Cat Chris on China Cabinet

Rose tried putting decorations on the mantle and the top of the cabinet to discourage him from jumping up there but he did anyway. Some of the items were breakable and I was worried he was going to break something but somehow he was able to make three jumps in quick succession without disturbing anything. It seemed impossible from my perspective but yet, there he was on the cabinet with nothing out-of-place.

Finally there was the mystery of Rose’s curio cabinet. It is at the end of the hallway with seemingly nothing close enough to use as a springboard, yet Chris still managed to get on top of it. Usually I would hear a loud noise and I would look to see the curio cabinet rocking slightly and Chris sitting on top of it. I was concerned that he might send it crashing down, possibly on top of him.

Curio Cabinet – Bathroom door is on left

Fortunately he did not get up there often but each time he did I was baffled by how he did it. It is a jump of well over six feet straight up. Rose concluded he jumped on the dining room table, then to the top of the blinds over the sliding glass door. From there, she thought, he walked to the edge and made the five foot jump to the cabinet. I was not convinced. The ceiling was too close to allow him the arc that he needed.

I finally saw him make the jump out of the corner of my eye one day. He stood on the end of the counter in the bathroom and made the long jump through the doorway to the top of the cabinet. It was just within the range of possibility and Chris had figured it out long before me. I may never have thought of that if I had not seen it. Makes me wonder who the smarter species is.