Tag Archives: cat

Work and Cats Don’t Mix

My wife has been sick the last couple of days and has not slept well due to difficulty breathing through her nose. In spite of her need for rest, she brought several hours of work to do at home. After we ate dinner she was too tired to work and went to bed early. At 2:30 this morning she was again having trouble sleeping so she got up to do her work. I woke up briefly when she got up but quickly fell back asleep until 4:30 when I heard Rose yell, “Chris! Stop that!” I think I may have heard swearing as well but I might have been dreaming.

I knew what was going on. Chris was biting her legs. He does that sometimes when he is not getting the required amount of attention. I decided I needed to drag myself out of bed to distract Chris so Rose could get her work done. Chris and work just don’t mix. I have tried it many times before and if he is not biting, he is stepping on the keyboard or rolling around on the desk and forget about having a cup of coffee nearby. Sometimes I just give up and come back to it when he is sleeping.

Here is a video of Chris biting my leg. It is an old one but it illustrates what we have to go through with him.

I don’t think I have to ask but who else has trouble getting work done with cats around?

Frankie’s Making Biscuits

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Frankie has this very cute habit of holding a blanket in his mouth and kneading. He especially likes our fleece blankets. We have one on the bed in the back bedroom that always seems to be messed up when we get home in the evening. One night we even found the blanket in the living room.

While I was up late on New Year’s Eve, I noticed Frankie was making biscuits on the bed. I don’t know how long he was doing it before I saw him but I recorded him for over ten minutes after I noticed him. Here is a shortened version of that video.

We call it “marching” in our house but most people call it “making biscuits,” “kneading,” “treading” or some variation. What do you call it?

Meet Frankie, Our Newest Addition
The Woobie
Photo Friday: Making Biscuits

Another Big Adventure For Frankie

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Rose and I came home a little later than usual on Tuesday evening. It was a bit colder than it had been recently and I forgot my jacket at work, plus I had to go to the bathroom, so I didn’t wait for Rose while she got the mail. I noticed the squirt bottle was not outside the door like it was supposed to be.

Since we bought that bottle, Frankie has been better about trying to run out the door. I try not to squirt him with it because I don’t want him to associate me with unpleasantness, but I will squirt it at the ground just so he will hear the sound and stay away. It has worked well lately. So well, in fact, that Frankie usually stays away from the door so the bottle is not even necessary. That is what I was hoping for when I opened the door but it was not to be.

I opened the door and held the bag I was carrying low to block any would be escape artists but a gold flash slipped under the bag and into the bushes next to the house. I looked to see who it was, hoping very much that it was Chris, but then I saw Frankie and yelled to Rose, “Frankie’s out! This is bad.”

We spent the next ten minutes trying to catch him without success. I kept trying to get on the other side of him to force him in the other direction but he was too fast and smart for me. We eventually lost sight of him and decided to go back to the house and regroup. I still had hope that he would tire and head back toward home. I fed the two cats that were not naughty that night, went to the bathroom, put on a jacket, grabbed a flashlight and a paper plate with some cat food, then Rose and I were back outside looking for the trouble maker.

We walked a little past where we last saw him but he was nowhere in sight. The last time he escaped I stood in one spot and waited for him to show himself so I thought that might work again. We walked back a little toward our house and stopped and waited. It was then Rose heard our next-door neighbor calling. She was standing at the edge of our property with Frankie in her arms. We hurried back because we knew Frankie didn’t like to be held and wouldn’t last long.

As expected, he struggled until he broke free and was loose again. He ran to the condos next to our property and hid under a vehicle there. I was able to coax him out with the cat food and slowly put my had out to “pet” Frankie while he was eating but he didn’t trust me and was off running again. This time he didn’t get far before our neighbor grabbed him and held him until Rose could pick him up and bring him home.

While I don’t exactly appreciate having to chase Frankie around at night in the cold, there was a positive side to this story. Frankie came back to the house on his own, which is a bit of a relief knowing that I can worry less about losing him.

If you haven’t read the previous “escape” stories, Check out:
Frankie’s Big Adventure
This and That
We’ve Created a Monster
Bad Cat Frankie

Space Invaders

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Since we put the Armour in the spare bedroom, all the cats like getting on top of it but Frankie has somewhat taken over that space as his own. Since our living area is somewhat limited, lately Frankie’s space has been invaded by Christmas related stuff. We needed a place to store gifts and other stuff while preparing for Christmas. As you can see, Frankie was not too thrilled about losing his spot.

The good news is the gifts are all wrapped and under the tree. The bad news is we have a visitor so other things are being stored up there for the moment. Oh well. At least it is temporary and things should be back to normal in a week.

Photo Friday: The Eyes Have It.

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Frankie has been a bad boy lately but today I want to focus on something good, like his eyes.

Photo Friday: Computer Repair Cat

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My computer has been down since Tuesday . Thankfully, Puck was there to investigate the problem. Unfortunately he couldn’t fix it.

I think the only fix is to wipe the hard drive and start fresh but I hesitate to do that because I haven’t backed it up in over a month. For now I am using my laptop but my photos and graphics software are on the desktop computer. Maybe I can get Chris to look at it.

The Closet King

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The other day Frankie tried to get into Rose’s closet. He managed to pop it open slightly but could not get it open far enough to get inside. It was a good effort but the door doesn’t slide easily so I couldn’t blame him for failing. That’s when Chris stepped in. I imagined him saying, “Move aside, let me show you how it’s done.”

Photo Friday: Making Biscuits

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We have a “woobie” blanket on a chair in the living room that Chris has taken a liking to. When he naps, we often see him on the blanket. Recently, Frankie has taken a liking to the blanket too, but not for napping. Instead he holds it in his mouth and kneads it. Often we come home from work and see the blanket pulled to the floor with part of it sticking up, most likely the part he was holding in his mouth.

Was That a Purr I Heard?

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Before I start this story. I want to mention a couple of unrelated things. First, I want to wish all American veterans a Happy Veterans Day and a big thanks for your service. Second, I want to mention Chris’s Facebook page got over 1000 likes since my last post. Thank you Ellen Pilch from 15 and Meowing for like #999 and Kjelle Bus Möller from Kjelle Bus aka Charlie Rascal for #1000.

The other day Chris was lying on my lap and I was shocked to hear the faint sound of a purr. For Chris, that is amazing because he doesn’t purr. He tries to purr but it always comes out as heavy breathing.

The joke around here is that his purrer is broken but I’m pretty sure that what I heard was an actual purr. Could this be an early sign that Chris is turning into a normal cat? If so, he still has a long way to go.

Photo Friday: Who Moved My Bowl?