Tag Archives: cat

Photo Friday: Frankie Surveys His Territory

19 Replies

Our association comprises six houses arranged in an L shape around a common vacant lot. Between each house and on each end is a six to eight-foot decorative wall. Frankie had jumped onto these walls about three times and attempted to jump a couple more times before I stopped him.

Here he is on the wall at the opposite end from our house. I think he has declared the entire area his.

Our Squirrel Wannabe

26 Replies

Frankie has always been fascinated by squirrels. I think he likes how easily they climb trees and wants to be just like them.

The other day he jumped up onto a tree in our yard.

I had to hold Frankie back from climbing higher into the tree.

The next day he was at it again. This time he chose a tree in the vacant lot in front of our house. Technically, the front of our house is the side opposite the driveway.

I hope he doesn’t escape at our new home, or we may have to call the fire department to get him out of a tree.

Adjusting to Walks at New Home

28 Replies

Frankie’s desire to go for walks has not diminished since we moved to our new home. What has diminished is what he considers his territory. I think he believed the entirety of our old neighborhood to be his. I was always picking him up and turning him around to prevent us from wondering too far from home.

Now he seems content to stay relatively close to home. We live on a corner lot next to a primary road running through the neighborhood. The back of the house is on a short, dead-end street. Our homeowner’s association consists of only six houses. We also each own a sixth interest in the large empty lot in front of our homes (see below).

Here is Frankie on a recent walk. So far, he has stayed on our short street or explored the empty lot. As you can see, he is already quite comfortable.

Here is a picture of the area I’m talking about. Our house has a checkmark. We typically Go out the back door by the street and walk past a few houses, sometimes to the end before turning around. We then walk around our house to the vacant lot, explore that for a while, and return home to the front door.

The Mystery of Chris’s Origin

10 Replies

As we were preparing to move, my wife and I went through a lot of our stuff to decide what was worth keeping and what we should dispose of. I found the folder that we got when we adopted Chris. The date on the folder said 3/10/09.

I had estimated Chris to be about six months old when we adopted him, so I always celebrated his birthday on May 14, but I need to reevaluate that. Now that I think about it, I remember him being listed as five months old when I first met him, but a lot of time elapsed between that first meeting and when we adopted him on the fourteenth of November. It seemed like a month but the earliest photo I have of him is from early October and that was at least a week, maybe more after I met him. Also, I don’t know how much time had elapsed since someone wrote his age on his pen at PetSmart.

When I first saw the date on his folder, I thought it was an intake date, which would make him much older than I thought since he was in a shelter in Florance before being transferred to Myrtle Beach. After looking at his other records, I think maybe that is his real birthday or perhaps an estimated birthday.

If anyone can read this handwriting, please let me know.

The record above shows he was neutered on July 16. I read that kittens can be neutered as early as eight weeks but generally, they wait until they are four to six months old. If he was born on March 10, this date would make sense. The records also seem to indicate he was not captured as a feral kitten but belonged to a person. The name Marcia appears on the document instead of the name of a shelter. If Marcia was his person, I wonder what happened to her? I know Chris was adopted from the shelter and returned after one day because he was too annoying, but it seems Marcia had him for at least a month. I can’t imagine she would give him up at that point because he was annoying. Perhaps she got sick. I guess I will never know.

Update: After posting I decided to look up the name and learned she is listed as an agent of Care a Lot Rescue in Florance, SC. I thought about contacting them but the last record I could find for them was from 2013. I don’t know how to find them other than the address I have on the receipt. It might have been a small organization operated out of a home.