Tag Archives: cat

Chris’s Belated Gotcha Day

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My A.D.D. has got the best of me again and I forgot about Chris’s gotcha day. We adopted Chris on November 14, 2009, at a shelter called Sav-R-Cats near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We don’t know his origin story. I just know he was brought there from another shelter west of Myrtle Beach, but I don’t remember from where. He was also adopted once and returned the next day because of bad behavior.

Chris on adoption day, 2009.

Chris has been a very difficult cat to raise but the rewards in entertainment and especially love and affection have been incalculable.

The Cocoa Incident

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Monday evening my wife wanted to watch a Christmas movie and I, being a good husband, sat and watched it with her. Of course, one can’t watch a Christmas movie without hot cocoa so I, being a good husband, got up and made hot cocoa for both of us.

I made it through about half my cup when Frankie got on my lap.

cat on lap

Frankie on my lap at a different time.

I was then stuck with a half cup of hot cocoa in my left hand but couldn’t drink it because Frankie was lying partially on my arm. Soon after, Chris noticed where Frankie was and he suddenly needed to lie on top of me, next to Frankie.

At this point, I wanted to get rid of my cup so I said to Rose something like, “I’m stuck with this cup I can’t get rid of.” I didn’t want to ask her to get out of her seat but I was hoping she would volunteer. She didn’t. Maybe she was not paying attention. Fifteen seconds later, disaster struck.

Frankie decided Chris was annoying and got up to leave. As he was leaving his back foot landed inside my cup and tipped it over, dumping the contents on my pants and on the sofa. He then proceeded to walk across the sofa with his cocoa foot and then down to the carpet.

I got up and went into the kitchen to get some towels but Rose insisted I wipe the cocoa off Frankie’s foot first, so I got a wet paper towel and followed him into the bedroom. I was able to only get one swipe at his foot before he disappeared under the bed. I then went back to the living room where Rose handed me a wet towel.

I started wiping the cocoa off the sofa but Rose chastised me for doing it wrong. I was not clear on what I was doing wrong. Perhaps it was “no up down go side side.” I don’t know but she took over since she was the only one qualified to do it right and I went to change my pants.

Maybe popcorn will be on the menu for the next Christmas movie.

The Uncontainable Floki

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Trimming Floki’s nails is just about the most difficult thing my wife and I have ever attempted. Before Floki came along Chris was our most difficult cat but at least trimming his nails was possible. I started bringing Floki to the vet for his nail trimmings but getting him into the carrier was nearly as difficult as trimming his nails.

Since moving in late August, his nails have only been trimmed once by a pet groomer that I don’t want to go back to. The local vet here requires his vaccinations to be up to date which they are if you are from the local animal control reading this.

We decided to catch Floki the other day and try again to trim his nails so we wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of finding someone to do it and then trying to put him in the carrier. We were inspired by Chris’s ability to hold him down.

You may remember me talking about how Chris would hold Puck down by the neck. Sometimes he would even drag Puck across the floor. I’m sure Puck didn’t like it but he would tolerate it from Chris. Floki doesn’t like it either but Floki is not afraid to let Chris know he doesn’t like it. He screams and hollers the way Siamese cats do until Rose or I release him from Chris’s grasp.

It is important to understand that Chris, one cat, can do what two grown humans cannot. Rose was convinced that holding Floki by the scruff of the neck was the key so she assigned me that task. I tried that before so I was skeptical that it would suddenly work this time but I said okay.

We found Floki lying on our bed Sunday evening so we set our plan in motion. Rose quietly got the trimmers and I sat next to Floki and pet him until Rose came near and then grabbed him by the scruff while wrapping my other arm around him and putting my body close on top of him. He squealed, twisted and bucked like a stallion. Five seconds later he was free and I had scratches and puncture wounds on my arms and legs.

I now have to find a vet or groomer and bring him in this week.

Photo Friday: Lap Cat

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Lately, Frankie is on my lap almost as much as Chris is. One of the things he likes to do is nap with his face pushed into my stomach.

Coincidently this is what is happening as I write this.

Frankie’s nose tends to drip when he is happy which explains the wet spot on my shirt. Our cat Vinny did the same thing.

I am scheduling this post a week early because my wife a I are leaving on a week-long cruise on the 14th. We will have internet but probably won’t spend much time online.

Puck’s Sixth Gotcha Day

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I was going through the notifications on my phone Sunday evening and decided to click on one from google photos. I typically ignore them because they are not important but I decided to look. They had “stylized” one of my photos which was no big deal. Every day they do something with your photos. Sometimes it’s an animation, sometimes it’s an album from a certain day and place, sometimes it’s a collage from this day in history. I scrolled down and saw “Rediscover this day” from September 15, 2012. It was the day we adopted Puck.

Screen capture from google photosCoincidently, we had friends over for dinner Saturday evening, one of whom was Lynn, our cat sitter. She talked about how sad she was that Puck was gone. She said Puck was her favorite and she loved how he always got on her lap and purred and purred. We all felt a bit sad after that.

Our cat Puck on ledge.

Puck 2012-2018

 

New Profile Photo

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It has been a while since I updated my profile photo so yesterday when Chris was on my shoulders I asked my wife to take a picture of us. It was impromptu and I didn’t have a chance to comb my hair or pick a nicer setting with better lighting but I thought it was good enough to use.Cat Chris and Chuck profile photo

Our last profile photo was taken in early 2011 so it was time for a change.

Chris and Chuck

I have a few other photos of Chris on my shoulders that were never used as profile pictures but are worth sharing. This one is from late 2010. It’s a little blurry which is probably why I never used it.

 

This is just a bad photo from 2013. Why I am sharing it, I don’t know.

 

 

Bad Cat Chris on my shoulders

Here is the earliest photo I have of Chris. It was taken with my cheap cell phone in 2009 at the animal shelter where I found him. He was on my shoulders then as always. I texted this photo to my wife, who was on a business trip, asking if we could “keep him.”

New House, Same Old Chris

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Moving to a new house did not interrupt Chris’s naughty behavior. In fact, it may have rekindled it. One of the things he used to do is pick at the bottom of closed doors. He destroyed the bathroom door in our last house and we had to replace it (read about that here). He stopped doing that at the old house but now he has started up again. I was awakened this morning by the sound of scratching at the door. I lied in bed thinking he would stop but then heard the sound of cracking wood. That wasn’t good. When I opened the door to see what happened this is what I saw.

Later that morning I heard the same familiar sound of wood splintering. This time Chris was trying to get into the hall closet.

Fortunately, we had already decided that all the interior doors needed to be replaced and I ordered six new doors just two or three days ago. There apparently was a flood in this house at one time and the bottoms of all the doors were not, shall we say, in prime condition. Some of the subfloors needed to be replaced too which we had done when we had the flooring installed.

Cabinets are another problem area with Chris. It seems he has to get into every cabinet he can find. Sometimes it takes him time to figure out which side opens.

cat Chris trying to open cabinetHe is most annoying standing by the pantry and crying. We kept his dry food in a very similar pantry cabinet at the other house so I think he assumes it is in this cabinet, but it is not. It is on top of the fridge. I tried to show him several times his food is not there but he is not convinced. This morning he pulled out a can of wet food. I don’t think he can smell it through the can so I assume he knows it by sight, which surprises me, especially since that was a can of Earthborn that I haven’t fed them for a week. What I have been feeding them is in the cabinet above and the cans are a different color and shape.

Hopefully, he will settle down soon. I would hate for him to destroy the new doors.