Can you believe Chris is fifteen? Sometimes, like after waking up to find puke and poop all over the house, I think he won’t make it to his sixteenth birthday. Other times, like as I write this, I see he has climbed up to his perch with no problem. That gives me hope.
He can also still be bad, although in more subtle ways, like turning over his food bowls.
I’m not going to dwell on how much time he has left, instead, I will enjoy each day he is with us. I will also remember some of his antics when he was young.
At some point this past year, Chris mostly lost interest in going outside but lately his interest has returned. Now, when I take Frankie for a walk Chris waits by the door so he can go out when we return.
Unlike Frankie, Chris is happy to stay close to home. Sometimes he eats a little grass but mostly he just wants to enjoy the great outdoors.
Back in June of 2012 I wrote a blog post titled “Tub Pooper C.” It was only my eighth post and it talked about how Chris would poop in the bathtub if the litterbox was not perfectly clean. He went from pooping in the tub to pooping on the floor. It was a problem for years. He was four or five years old when he finally stopped doing that. I previously had litterboxes in separate rooms. When we moved to the place next to the marina, I combined two litterboxes in the same room. That solved the issue.
Now, years later, Chris is pooping on the floor again. It started a few weeks ago when Chris pooped under the dining room table while Rose was sitting at the table working. Since then, the number of times he pooped on the rug under the table or on the living room rug has increased until it was happening at least once a day, sometimes more.
I suspected that some of Chris’s age-related issues, such as arthritis and obesity, has made it difficult to use the litter box. Perhaps walking to the next room or climbing into the box has become too much. Of course, he can do it when he has to pee and he can also get up on a relatively high perch, but I still thought a lower litterbox closer to the dining room might help.
As an experiment, I picked up a disposable litterbox at the Grocery store on Friday and set it up under the dining room table.
As expected, our other cats used it, but Chris deposited his calling card on the rug a few feet from the box Saturday morning.
I ordered a large stainless-steel litterbox from Amazon that morning which is only four inches tall. It arrived Sunday. By then we had removed the rugs and washed them. We didn’t put them back because it seemed that Chris was targeting the rugs. I didn’t want to put the new box under the table, so I found room in a nearby bathroom.
It is now 2:00 p.m. on Monday and I have not seen a stray poop. I don’t know if Chris used the new box or if he didn’t poop because he only likes pooping on those rugs. Either way, I’m hopeful.
A couple of people said happy birthday to Floki the other day even though I didn’t post about it. It reminded me his birthday was coming up and I made a note to look it up when I got home, which I forgot to do until this morning.
Floki was born on or around the eighteenth of April 2016. Since we don’t know his exact birthday, it could very well be today. Even so, I feel bad that other people remember before I do.
I tried to find a recent photo of Floki alone but everything recent has Chris lying next to him or on top of him. The photo below was from two months ago.
Hopefully I won’t forget Chris’s birthday next month.
Some days our house seems like a satellite office of the post office. I won’t mention any names but someone I’m married to likes to shop online.
After I took Frankie for a walk yesterday, Chris wanted to go outside, so I sat on the front step and watched him while he lay in the driveway and enjoyed the sun. The door opened and that someone I mentioned earlier threw the empty box from the first of four packages she received that day out the door. We often throw empty boxes out the door until one of us goes outside and takes them to the garbage can. The box was too much for Chris to resist.
My wife runs several apartment communities. During covid, they started unlocking available units so people could look at them without the staff present. The called them “self-tours” and they still sometimes do that on the weekends when the office is closed.
Now, whenever Frankie escapes, we say he is on a self-tour of the neighborhood. He took one of those self-tours this morning at around 5:15. My wife was going to one of her properties fifty miles away and realized she forgot to plug her car in last night so she asked if I would plug it in for her. Even though she had 200 miles left on her battery, she still felt like she needed more. That’s because she drives 357 miles per hour, which drains the battery faster.
I had just fed the cats and Frankie was busy eating so I thought it would be easy getting out the door. I thought wrong. As soon as the door opened six inches I noticed a tan flash zip out the door. I tried to get him before he got too far but he quickly ran under a car where he knows I can’t reach him. I went back inside, put my shoes on, and returned to where Frankie was last but he was gone. I looked for a while, but it was dark except for the nearby streetlight.
Rose and I opened the door every five minutes or so to see if he had returned. After forty-five minutes, I opened the door and saw him on the street. He ran to the house and climbed the steps. He was met by Floki at the door. I certainly didn’t want Floki to get out because he is a big freaker-outer so I pushed him back to give Frankie room to come in. Frankie just stood there sniffing. Then Floki walked around me and showed up at the door on the other side. Again, I held him back, but Frankie had made up his mind. He wasn’t ready to come in. He turned around and headed away from the house.
Fifteen minutes later I opened the door and called Frankie’s name. I waited several seconds but didn’t see him so I started to close the door. When I did I felt resistance and looked down to see Frankie coming inside.
After his return, Rose said, “You are NOT taking Frankie for a walk today. You shouldn’t reward his bad behavior.” I happen to have today off, and Frankie is relentless about asking to go outside. The weather is bad. It is very windy, and rain is expected soon, but Frankie cares about none of that.
I didn’t get a picture of Frankie today but here he is on another self-tour.
Good morning, everyone. I hope your day is going as good as Frankie’s. He started out this morning rolling around on the dining room table. Actually, he started by knocking my coffee off the table, but the point is, he was a happy kitty.
That was followed by a nice walk where he got to see at least four dogs and a squirrel.
While on a walk with Frankie this morning we encountered a group of Peacocks.
I looked up the name for a group of Peacocks and were presented with multiple choices. My favorite was a ostentation, but they can also be called a pride, muster, or party. I also learned that a group of female peacocks, or fowls in general, would be called a bevy. I believe these were all female.
Frankie was remarkably calm, although I did have to restrain him once.
Considering that all of or cats, especially Chris, like to get under the covers on our bed, I thought they would like their own bed with a cover on it so I picked one up about a week ago.
Floki took to it right away. Surprisingly, Chris waited his turn like a gentlecat.
I’ve seen Frankie in there too, but Chris forced him out before I could take a picture.
On another note, my books, Bad Cat Chris and Falling Star will be free in the eBook format today only on Amazon. My other two books, Identity Crisis and The Last Healer, will be 75% off on Smashwords through March 9. If anyone would like to help me by reviewing one of my books, I will appreciate it. I recommend checking out The Last Healer for $1.24 because I am currently writing a sequel to it.
Bad Cat Chris 