Tag Archives: cat

What’s next for Bad Cat Chris?

Jealousy

Rose and I discussed getting a playmate for Chris since shortly after we got him. He has so much energy and always wants to play, but until recently our other cats didn’t want to play with him. That changed when we got our new kitten, Puck. He has turned out to be a great playmate for Chris. They spend a good part of the day pouncing on each other or chasing each other. Sometimes I even see them washing each other.

There is, however, a darker side of this relationship: jealousy. Whenever puck comes to Rose or me for attention, Chris is sure to show up seconds later. occasionally the opposite happens. Puck will come to us second and then Chris will leave, presumably in disgust.

Keep in mind that I have a hard enough time trying to figure people out so interpreting the behavior of another species could be beyond my ability. Nevertheless, I feel Chris is the Alpha male in the house and he feels threatened by the kitten.

I have seen behavior from Chris that is different now than it was before Puck showed up. For example, he sometimes will grab Puck or Tigger by the scruff of the neck and hold them down for an extended period, as if he is reminding them who is the boss.

There is also something that he does not do that somewhat bothers me. Rose gets ready for work every morning by sitting at the counter in the bathroom. Chris used to lay on the counter while she got ready. He was somewhat of a nuisance for her but also a source of entertainment. He would lie there and grab her makeup or whatever he could get his paws on and pull it toward him.

Now Puck has taken over his spot so Chris usually just avoids the bathroom in the morning. That makes me feel bad because that was part of his routine that was taken away from him. Of course, Chris could easily take that spot back if he wanted to, so I am not sure why I feel bad about it. Perhaps it is because he does not want to take it back.

Puck takes over Chris’s spot

All things considered, Chris is generally a happy cat and I believe puck has added to his life more than he has taken. Eventually, Chris will reestablish his dominance and all will be right with the world. Well…maybe not the world.

Chris Gets a Playmate

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A few weeks before Abbey died we visited Jeff and Felice, Rose’s sister and brother-in-law. Felice works for a vet and is active in helping stray and feral cats in the area. Her and Jeff have also adopted several “unadoptable” cats with physical problems.

The day we came for a visit she had two very young kittens that she was bottle feeding in her home for a local rescue organization. One kitten was a male that was all black. The other was a black female with calico markings over one eye. They both needed homes and would be ready for adoption in a few weeks.

Of course, with Abbey being sick, we were not ready to adopt another cat at that time. We did not want to bring any trauma into the house during the small amount of time Abbey had left.

It happened that Abbey died when the kittens were old enough to be adopted and the next day happened to be Saturday, the only day that is convenient for visiting Felice. Rose really liked the kitten and wanted to get him, and I agreed, but I was hesitant about it because I didn’t want to cheapen the memory of Abbey by replacing her so quickly. In the end I realized it is the circle of life and there is nothing wrong with giving a home to a kitten who needs one.

New Kitten with housemate just before we brought him home.

So on Saturday, we were off to pick up our new kitten. We visited for a while before taking him home and watched him interacting with the other cats in the house. He seemed to get along with at least one or two of the other cats as well as the other kitten that he was raised with. We felt a little bad taking him away from the only home he knew but we also knew that his stay there was only temporary. He needed a permanent home and we were confidant that he would be happy with us.

When we brought him home we expected some bad behavior from Chris and Tigger. They are cats after all and cats can be very jealous creatures. Tigger, as expected, did a fair amount of hissing when he saw the new arrival and quickly left the room in disgust. Chris, however, was just curious. When we opened the carrier door, Chris greeted the new kitten by sticking his head inside and blocking the only way out.

This went on for several minutes and the nervous kitten just huddled in the carrier and didn’t want to come out. When he did come out he did a little exploring, which Tigger was not happy about. Chris just followed him around and seemed happy to have the distraction. Eventually our kitten discovered the under side of the bed and decided that was a good place to stay for a while.

Felice and Jeff named him either Chow Chow or Chow Man. We heard him called by both names and we are not sure which one was his given name. It didn’t really matter because we didn’t like either one and decided to change it. The reason they gave him the name was because he loved meal time. This proved true when I tried to lure him out from under the bed with a little plate of wet kitten food. In his case, food easily trumps shyness.

Chris greets kitten as he comes out for food.

After he ate he went back under the bed and that became his home away from home for a few days. Eventually he gave up his shelter. Tigger, for his part, gave the kitten hell for a week or two but then got over himself.

Part of the reason we wanted to get another cat goes back to about the time we first got Chris. He had so much energy and always wanted to play but none of our cats wanted to play with him. We thought we needed another cat with his energy level, if one even existed, to help keep him entertained so he would stop bothering us. At that time we had five cats, our limit, so one more was out of the question. There was also the possibility that another hyperactive cat could mean twice the trouble.

Since we moved into our latest home we discussed getting another cat from time to time. I thought if we did get one, it should be around Chris’s age so they would grow old at the same time. Our plan is to retire to a boat, motor home, or both, and old cats might work but a middle-aged, adventurous cat could be a problem in such a confined space. My plan, if we decided to get a cat, was to check shelters for a three-year old cat with ADHD. That opportunity never came up before we met the kitten that needed a home.

Our next dilemma was finding a good name for the newest member of our family. To be continued…

On another note, I moved Chris’s videos to his own YouTube channel, youtube.com/badcatchris. Also, don’t forget to “Like” Chris on Facebook at facebook.com/badcatchris.

Abbey Gets Sick

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The summer of 2012 brought us bad news. At first we did not know what to think when we noticed that Abbey was not as fat as she used to be. We were a little concerned but when someone is obese, losing weight is usually a good thing. In hindsight, we should have brought her to the vet right away, but our thinking was that endless tests for a problem that may not exist can be very expensive.

We kept an eye on her and the weight gradually came off but she did not act sick. Instead, she seemed to be more active, even jumping up on the counters, something usually reserved for Chris. She also had a great appetite. Nothing we would associate with an illness, except for the weight loss.

Because of her energy levels and apparent happiness, we waited too long. She passed normal weight to slightly underweight when we finally brought her to the vet, by that time, the vet said she had liver failure.

We could have put her to sleep then, but I did not see one once of suffering in her. I decided I was going to give her a little more attention than normal to make her final time on earth a little more pleasant.

I was also not 100 percent convinced that her condition was irreversible. Even though we always had fed them good quality food, I started buying the healthiest food I could find. I was mixing raw food with canned food, which is the healthiest option, but I stopped doing that because none of the cats liked it much and would usually leave half the plate uneaten. I wanted to make sure Abbey was eating enough. I also bought some milk thistle and added it to her food but even that was difficult because if I put more than a very small amount in her food she wouldn’t eat it.

Rose and I decided to keep the bedroom door open so Abbey could sleep next to me. That meant all the trouble we went through trying to keep Chris out became null and void. Chris now had freedom to wake us up at all hours of the night, and he did.

Abbey continued to lose weight and Rose thought I was being selfish because I was not ready to have her put to sleep, but she continued to eat and behave like a normal happy cat. I just couldn’t justify putting her out of her misery when she did not seem to be miserable.

We went on a cruise in September and had someone watch the cats while we were gone. We also had a friend come in every day to check on Abbey. She had the unpleasant job of taking her to the vet if it was her time to go.

When we got back, Abbey looked even worse. We decided to take her in that day, even though she still did not act sick. It occurred to both of us that she was eating because she was hungry and she was hungry because her body was not getting nutrients from the food.

We put her in the cat carrier and made the long drive to the vet. It was long because we brought her to the vet that Rose’s sister, Felice, works at.

She cried for half the trip and I felt very guilty because it seemed like she was asking us to go back home. I opened the door and started petting her until she was crying and purring at the same time. I then felt even more guilty.

After we got to the vet we were ushered into an exam room where the vet looked at her and confirmed it was time. We said our goodbyes and Felice took her in the back. We did not want to be there for that part but Felice said she would stay with her, which made us feel better. Not exactly the best end to our vacation.

Abbey – 2004 to 2012

The Call of the Great Outdoors

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When we moved to our current home and Chris was able to go out on the patio again, we thought he would be happy. Unfortunately, it is like that old saying, “Give someone an inch and they will take a mile.” Chris was not happy with his inch. Being partly exposed to the outside just made him want it even more.

Every time one of us came home or left while the cat door was open, we had to figure out how to get through the door without Chris getting out. I use the past tense but it is still true today. Sometimes I would just let him out because it was easier than fighting with him. At first, just like at our last place, Chris would just roll around on the sidewalk, but soon he started making a beeline for the front yard.

Bad Cat Chris in bushes

He did not go far. He just ran around the front yard, investigating every movement. For awhile we thought it was a little cute. We would let him out after listening to him cry for a while, then I would try to catch him after four or five minutes. Of course, this wasn’t easy. He would usually wait until I got close and then bolt away. I would then have to walk across the yard to get him and he would run back. I think this game of “Catch me if you can” was fun for Chris but I got little enjoyment from it.It wasn’t long, however, before he discovered that the outside world had an ample supply of lizards. The first thing he did when he got outside was look for lizards. Sometimes he would catch one as soon as he got out. If he didn’t find one right away, the lizards would hide. It was funny watching him sometimes because he would be searching through the bushes while several lizards hung very still on trees opposite of Chris’s field of vision.

When he did catch one, I would have to get it out of his mouth before he killed it. This usually resulted in some resistance along with some growling. We soon decided that, for the sake of the lizard population, we would try to resist giving in to his begging to go outside.

: You can see what a great strategic position he is in when he waits under the cat perch.

Chris is a very smart cat and can easily adapt, so when we stopped letting him out, he changed his strategy. He started laying under the cat perch, especially when he knew someone was leaving. It is the perfect spot because we can’t pick him up from there and we also can’t hold him down without blocking the door from opening.

As usual, we change our strategy, Chris changes his, we change ours to counter and it goes on and on. It is like playing chess with a cat. When he started hiding under the perch, I started opening the door slightly to lure him out. When he went for the opening I would quickly shut the door and grab him.

Chris countered by waiting under the perch. He is too smart to let himself be fooled more than once or twice so he held his ground until he had a clear shot out the door.

My next move was to give the cats treats when someone had to come in or go out. All the cats would come running for treats which was my chance to close the cat door. This actually worked for a while. I think the lure of treats was too great, even for Chris. Eventually though, he stopped falling for it.

Even when it did work, it was not foolproof because he would sometime sneak out the main door when we tried to leave and park himself under the perch. If I wasn’t in a hurry, I would just let him out because catching him outside was easier than getting him out from his little fortress.

Chris soon stopped looking for lizards and started eating grass. I know it is natural for cats to eat grass so I would give him a few minutes before bringing him in.

Even today Chris is still getting outside. On Halloween I was very carefull to open the door just a crack to give candy out but that was all it took. Aren’t cats supposed to be afraid of strangers wearing masks?

Chris’s Door

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After moving into our townhome, the cats were very happy to be able to go out on the patio again.This patio was even better because it was on the ground floor where they could better see the ducks, squirrels, lizards, dogs, people and whatever else walked, crawled, slithered or flew by.

There was a couple of problems however. First, there is a saying that “no matter what side of a door a cat is on, he will always want to be on the other side.” This is true for our cats and it was somewhat annoying having to let them out and back in all the time. Chris was especially annoying because he was very vocal about wanting to change sides.

The other problem was that we had to keep them inside at night because there was no food, water or a litter box outside. This meant that Chris was upstairs annoying us for half the night while we were trying to sleep. Then one day the solution just appeared.

: Our new cat door

We ran across someone selling a cat door that attaches to a sliding glass door, so we decided to buy it. We had one in South Carolina but it would not fit the tracks. It did fit the track for the screen however so we put it on that track. This worked but did not allow us to lock the door so the cats had to stay in at night and when we were not home.

Now we actually had a cat door that worked the way it was supposed to. Chris, of course, had no problem zipping in and out through the door. Abbey and Tigger were a few weeks behind getting the hang of it.

: Chris and Tigger enjoying the patio.

The best part about the cat door was that it cut down on the amount of time that Chris was upstairs keeping us awake. After a short time I decided to try closing the bedroom door again. As usual I put the plastic runner under the door and put an object on each side in hopes of preventing Chris from digging up the carpet. This did not work before but now it seemed worth another shot.

Miraculously, we were finally able to get a good night’s sleep. Sure, Chris would come up at 4:30 in the morning and cry and scratch at the door, but we would just ignore him and eventually he would quit and go away. I think this worked because he had somewhere better he could be.

But alas, he would not truly earn his name Bad Cat Chris if this was the end of the story. When it comes to Chris, any solution is only temporary until he can find a new way to cause trouble. I’ll save that story for another time.

On another note, Bad Cat Chris now has his own Facebook page. There is a button on the side bar if you would like to “Like” him or you can check out the page at facebook.com/badcatchris.

Chris’s Heart

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When we first got Chris he would lie across my neck or on top of my head. Rose used to joke that, “You can wear him as a hat, you can wear him as a scarf…” Because we could hear his heartbeat when he did that, we noticed early on that his heartbeat was incredibly fast. It seemed as though he just finished a marathon, and since Chris was such a busy kitten, we concluded that he was exhausting himself.

Besides the fast heartbeat, Chris would also breathe very quickly, taking in many breaths of air in a short time. My concern led me to do some research where I found this to be somewhat normal for kittens.

Fast forward about a year where Chris and Tigger were napping on the bed. I noticed Chris was breathing very quickly while he was napping. I decided to count the breaths. Chris took in 88 breaths in one minute while Tigger only took in 11. That was an incredible 8 to 1 ratio.

I thought about taking him to the vet but we couldn’t justify spending hundreds of dollars on endless tests for a cat that had more energy than an atomic bomb.

I was reminded about this problem this morning when he woke me up and I could hear his heart racing. The good news is, Chris and Tigger are napping here now and I counted 23 breaths for Chris and 32 for Tigger. I hope I don’t have to worry about Tigger now.

Chris and Tigger, just took this picture as I was writing. To the left was Abbey’s bed.

Chris Takes the High Ground

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Chris on kitchen cabinet

Cats, by nature, seem to like being up high. I suppose it is the predator instinct and it is no more obvious than in a cat like Chris. I mentioned before that he likes getting on top of things and our new apartment seemed like it was built with him in mind.

For starters, our kitchen cabinets do not go to the ceiling so there is a gap above them that Chris loves to get into. he usually jumps on the counter, then to the refrigerator and from there it is an easy step up. Sometimes he will leap from the fridge to the cabinets on the opposite side. I worry that he will miss and hurt himself but so far, so good.

I don’t know how he does this

Then there is the handrail at the upstairs landing, it overlooks the living room and is about 12 to 15 feet above the floor. It is only about an inch and a half wide and I often see him jumping up on the railing.

There is also the china cabinet. He would get up there when we were in the living room watching television. I think he may do that to show us how bad he can be. To get up there he jumps on Rose’s chair, then to the fire-place mantle and then up on top of the cabinet.

Bad Cat Chris on China Cabinet

Rose tried putting decorations on the mantle and the top of the cabinet to discourage him from jumping up there but he did anyway. Some of the items were breakable and I was worried he was going to break something but somehow he was able to make three jumps in quick succession without disturbing anything. It seemed impossible from my perspective but yet, there he was on the cabinet with nothing out-of-place.

Finally there was the mystery of Rose’s curio cabinet. It is at the end of the hallway with seemingly nothing close enough to use as a springboard, yet Chris still managed to get on top of it. Usually I would hear a loud noise and I would look to see the curio cabinet rocking slightly and Chris sitting on top of it. I was concerned that he might send it crashing down, possibly on top of him.

Curio Cabinet – Bathroom door is on left

Fortunately he did not get up there often but each time he did I was baffled by how he did it. It is a jump of well over six feet straight up. Rose concluded he jumped on the dining room table, then to the top of the blinds over the sliding glass door. From there, she thought, he walked to the edge and made the five foot jump to the cabinet. I was not convinced. The ceiling was too close to allow him the arc that he needed.

I finally saw him make the jump out of the corner of my eye one day. He stood on the end of the counter in the bathroom and made the long jump through the doorway to the top of the cabinet. It was just within the range of possibility and Chris had figured it out long before me. I may never have thought of that if I had not seen it. Makes me wonder who the smarter species is.

Did I mention the closet?

Another Big Move

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Late in 2011 we decided to move out of our waterfront condo and live where Rose works. Part of the reason for doing that was to save about $400 a month. The other reason was for convenience. Since Rose managed the property that we were moving to, she would not have to drive to work and she could better keep an eye on the property. It also cut in half my drive to work and eventually led to me being able to ride my bicycle there. (See newlybent.wordpress.com)

It was also better for the cats. I don’t think they appreciated the waterfront view as much as we did. What they wanted, especially Chris, was to go outside. Well, that wasn’t an option, but the new place had a screened in patio that the condo did not have.

We spent weeks packing, during which time our home was basically turned upside-down. The cats knew something was going on but they have been through moves before and did not seem too stressed about it. Abbey and Tigger had been through three moves with us and who knows how many more before we adopted them. Chris had moved once with us but he was also transferred from one shelter to another before we found him. In addition, he was adopted and then returned.

When the movers came, we had to put the cats in the bathroom until they were finished. They were not happy about that. Abbey and Tigger stayed relatively quiet but Chris wanted out and was not shy about letting us know.

Our new apartment is one of the few townhomes that are on the property. It has two floors with the master bedroom upstairs and another bedroom downstairs. I had a plan to finally keep Chris out of the bedroom so we could sleep. I bought a plastic runner and cut it to fit just right under the bedroom door so he couldn’t dig up the carpet. I thought since he was not accustomed to being in the bedroom at night, he wouldn’t miss it.

That plan made perfect sense in theory but I didn’t anticipate Rose feeling bad for the cats after putting them through another move. This of course meant that we had to continue to put up with Chris in the bedroom at night. I tried using my plastic runner a few days later but since he knew what he was missing he sat outside the door crying and digging. He quickly realized he couldn’t did through the plastic so he did the next best thing, he started digging at carpet next to the plastic. I think he knows he can’t dig his way into the room; he just wants to annoy us enough to open the door.

I added the objects on the sides because he was digging next to the plastic.

Even with the brick in the way, Chris finds a way to ruin the carpet.

I thought we could put a litter box on the patio and put him out at night but Rose vetoed that idea. I think she was afraid a visitor would smell poop when they came to visit, or worse, she would smell it.

Eventually we found something that changed everything, but that is a story for another time, so I hope you keep reading.

Chris the Exterminator

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Even though Chris is a bad cat he has a few good qualities. Besides being the entertainer in the house, he also keeps our home relatively bug free. To be honest, Tigger deserves partial credit for that but Tigger is more of a spotter, Chris is a take action kind of cat. Weather Chris spots an invader first or Tigger, it doesn’t matter, Chris is on it like a fly on…well, lets just say he is extremely focused.

: Chris with lizzard

It is funny to watch him too because he doesn’t just catch insects, spiders, lizards or whatever other small creature enters our house, he has to play them. He keeps them alive for a while and watches them, when they try to escape, he corrals them with his paw.

More than once I saw him catch a fly and play with it like that. Somehow he knows how to disable the fly’s ability to fly away. I have even seen him play with it in one room, pick it up with his mouth and move it to another room and continue to play with it then move it to a third room before eating it. I used the term “play” but I am sure the fly didn’t see it that way.

Flies, at least, have a chance, not so with cockroaches, at least not for the ones he sees. Fortunately he doesn’t eat those or I would really be grossed out, but he does leave them as a present. That’s okay. I would rather pick up a dead roach than know there is a live one lurking around.