A couple of friends of ours from Florida, Nancy and Joe, visited us over the weekend. They recently bought a Winnabego and had taken it on the road. On their return to Florida, we were not too much out of the way so they stopped here for a couple af days.
On Saturday, while we were sitting at the dining room table, Nancy was cold so Rose offered her the blanket that she keeps on the couch. The same blanket that Chris loves to sleep on because it is very soft.
While she was sitting there with the blanket over her lags, Chris tried to reclaim the blanket by lying on her feet.
He actually took a nap there on her feet. I guess she will think next time about who’s blanket she decides to steal.
I was at the supermaket yesterday morning when Rose called me. “Frankie got out!” she said. “And I’m locked out of the house with no shoes on.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m coming home right now.”
I quickly checked out with what I was able to get and went home. When I arived I saw nobody at first but then saw Rose and the pest control guy crossing the street. The guy was here to do an annual termite inspection and Frankie got out when Rose answered the door.
The man was carrying a fishing net and Rose pointed and said “Frankie is under that truck. As soon as we approached, Frankie ran out.
He ended up under a van a couple of houses down so I asked the guy to push at Frankie with his net. I hoped he would come out on my end but he shot out the front and ended up back under the pest control guy’s truck.
From there he went into the neighbors back yard and was about to jump the fence into our yard but changed his mind and skirted past me. After a little more chasing he ended up in front of our house too pooped to care anymore. I held my hand out and he gave it a good sniff while I move in close enough to grab him.
My biggest worry is that he is unfamiliar with the area. I have been lazy and have not taken him for a walk since he seems very content to just hang out on the catio. With one week more here I don’t think I will worry about walkling him here but once we get back to Florida I will have to do that.
Chris has been very reluctant to go up and down the stairs these last couple of weeks and I find myself having to carry him up and down so he can join the family. Occasionally, he will make the trip on his own, like he did Friday evening.
I was very happy to see him go up the stairs on his own but watching him made me worry even more. He seemed to be limping up the steps, although I don’t know exactly what limping up stairs looks like with a cat but I would guess that is what he was doing. He seemed to dip down further on the right which made me think he was having pain in his right front leg.
I decided to go on Amazon and look for something that might help. I found Joint Support Chews that have Glucosamine, Omega3, and other stuff. The link above is an affiliate link so you can see what I ordered but since I have not received it yet I can’t recommend it.
Yesterday afternoon I carried Chris downstairs so he could be with the rest of the family. I set him down at the foot of the stairs and tried to show him the door to the catio was open. I wanted to see him walk but he just sat there. After more prompting he walked toward me but I didn’t notice a limp this time.
He stopped in front of the empty food bowls and tried to send me a psychic message but I pretended not to notice.
Eventually he went outside and later came upstairs on his own when I wasn’t watching so I don’t know what to think now. I guess I will just keep an eye on him and hope the Chews help.
My wife left for Virgina on Tuesday Morning for a work trip. I thought it would be a good time to set up my security camera so that you can better understand why we have been closing Chris out of the bedroom all these years. The camera only records when it detects movement. Even so, it recorded over 25 minutes of video. I was able to cut it down a little but it is still long. I should have quadrupled the speed during processing but I just now thought of that. I think after a few minutes you will get the idea.
There is a time stamp on the video so you can see what time it was for each disturbance. Chris was actually pretty good and didn’t start with his shenanigans until almost 1:00 a.m. It’s hard to see but he likes digging his claws into my skin which is what is most disturbing.
I mentioned before that there were a couple of older kittens that came around our house. One of them returned yesterday evening while my wife and I were out on the catio, without the cats.
I put my hand up against the screen and the kitten was rubbing his head on it. We talked about how bad we felt because we wanted to give him some food but we didn’t want to get him used to it because we are leaving in less than a month. Instead, I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I went outside and pet him for a while.
After a short time my wife decided to throw caution to the wind and brought out a plate of food. At first he didn’t want the food. He seemed to want attention more, but after a while he started eating.
The next door neighbor was outside at the time and I overheard my wife talking to her. According to the neighbor, the kitten, along with at least one other, are being cared for across the street from us. She also said the neighbor doesn’t want the kittens and is looking for homes for them. I wish we could take this one in because he, or she, is so cute and friendly, but we have a one cat limit in Florida and traveling with three cats is hard enough.
Saturday night Chris whinned and cryed and scratched at the bedroom door until finally I opened the door and let him in. He was surprisingly good. He did bother me a little but it was not untill almost 6 a.m. before he became unbearable and by then the goal of lasting an entire night in the bedroom had been accomplished.
The above photo is from 2019 but I think it illustrates how difficult Chris can be. The next photo is poor quality but it too shows what a pain Chris can be, literally.
I do not know if Chris sleeping with us will become a habit but I hope he can learn to behave himself.
When we first brought our cats to our new West Virginia home last November, I was concerned that Chris’s age and weight would be a problem when going up and down the stairs but, to our surprise, he was the first one to investigate the upstairs. During that stay he would not hesitate to go up and down the stairs.
Fast forward to a month ago when we returned and Chris would still go up and down the stairs but he seemed to spend more time upstairs and would come down later in the day or evening when Rose and I were both downstairs. Several days ago I noticed Floki and Frankie were spending time on the catio without Chris. I started to pay attention and noticed Chris stopped coming downstairs.
I also noticed that sometimes when Chris gets off my lap, he doesn’t land gracefully like a cat but seems to stumble. I am concerned that maybe he is getting arthritis or is in pain for another reason. My concern is that he just all of a sudden stopped coming down the stairs. That tells me that something got worse pretty quickly.
I will say that since we have been back he has rarely come downstairs for breakfast. Usually he waits in the bedroom or at the top of the stairs. Since he cares about dry food more than wet food I consider it to be at least partly because of apathy.
Once downstairs I and open a can of wet food and put it on three plates. By then Frankie is on the counter eating off one of the plates before I can put it down. After I put his plate down I head up with Chris and Floki’s plates. I learned that if I put Floki’s plate down too he will eat until I leave with Chris’s food then he will follow me. So now I just take both plates and Floki follows me up the stairs, talking to me the whole way up.
The last couple of evenings I picked up Chris and carried him downstairs and then carried him back up again. On the way up I put him down on the landing and let him walk up the last three or four steps, which he seems to do okay.
I want to take him in and have him looked at but there is no vet in this town. This town of 3800 people has three auto parts stores and two hardware stores but no veterinarian. I hope this is not a reflection of the priorities of the people in this town.
He seems okay otherwise so I guess I will just carry him around for the next month and then see his vet in Florida whenwe return.
Sunday night, shortly after we went to bed, Chris started his usual crying and scratching at the bedroom door. This time was worse than usual and he would not stop. After about a half hour I gave up and, over the protests of my wife, let him in.
He actually did pretty well. He bothered me a little but I put him down at my side, away from my face, and he stayed there for a long time. I think he bothered me one more time but I again put him down and he again stayed.
Some time between 3 and 4 a.m. my wife got up and said she couldn’t sleep because of Chris. “He’s behaving,” I said. “How is he keeping you awake?”
“You guys are hogging the sheets and taking up the entire bed,” she said before getting up and going downstairs.
My mind went back to the time before Chris when four to five cats would sleep on the bed next to me and that didn’t cause a problem for Rose. On top of that, I’m pretty sure we had a queen bed back then instead of the king we have now.
Rose came back to bed around 4:45 and about five minutes later Chris started bothering me but this time I could not get him to stop. If it was 5 a.m. I would have considered it too late to go back to sleep and got up. That would have meant that Chris made it through an entire night in our room. Instead, I put him out and closed the door ten minutes shy of the goal.
I managed to sleep almost an additional hour before Chris started scratching and howling at the door. Some day I will get eight hours of sleep. Perhaps when we take our vacation a year from now.
Bad Cat Chris 