Tag Archives: cat

Chris Comes Home

November 14, 2009, a day that will live in infamy. That was the day we decided to bring Chris home. We made that decision even after knowing that Chris was adopted by another couple two or three weeks earlier and returned the next day because he kept them up all night with his biting. This is like buying a car after finding out it was in a wreck.

We got to the shelter and visited with Chris one more time before making the final decision. Of course, it wasn’t much of a decision because we brought a cat carrier with us, fully expecting that it would come home with a cat in it. We had no trouble putting him in the carrier. We just opened the door and he walked right in. He also gave us no trouble on the way home. I think he was ready for an adventure.

When we got home the other cats were not happy. They hissed and growled at Chris but it did not seem to bother him much. Unlike Abbey and Flash, who hid under the bed the first day, Chris went exploring. He investigated every nook and cranny of his new home. He also stayed clear of the other cats for a while, but that did not last long. Soon he was jumping on them and biting their necks. I’m not sure if he was trying to establish himself as the alpha cat or he just wanted someone to play with.

Next time I will talk about the first night. Stay tuned…

Chris getting comfortable with Rose on his first day home.

Updated 02/18/2015: This is a video of Chris exploring after his adoption.

Decisions, decisions

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Volunteering at the Sav-R-Cats shelter was nice because I finally felt like I could be useful and help get cats adopted. My primary job was to photograph the cats and put them on petfinder.com. That was difficult at first because it had been awhile since anyone had done it and nobody knew the username, password and other important information. Eventually I got that working and I also revamped their website, sav-r-cats.com.

Rose came to visit the shelter a couple times and took interest in a cat named Kinsey. He was a very friendly cat that would jump onto the shoulders of visitors to the shelter. It was as if he was saying “adopt me” to anyone who would listen. We would have taken him in but we were not ready for another cat.

Kinsey

Eventually I started filling in at the Myrtle Beach Petsmart in the morning when they needed someone to clean the cages. They had cats in there on a rotating basis with two other shelters in the area. The cages at Petsmart have small openings between each “cubicle” on the same row. These opening can be shut so the cats are separated from one another or they can be opened to allow multiple cats to visit with each other and share the space. The later is how it was set up one morning when I let all the cats from one row out while I was cleaning.

Not much time had passed when I suddenly felt sharp claws digging into my back. It was a gold kitten who had jumped straight up from the floor to get on my shoulders. He was purring and licking my ear. He then started biting my ear and rubbing his face on my cheek. He then moved around to my nose and started biting my nose. I later found out his name was Chris and told my wife about him when I got home. I thought she would be interested because since getting Tigger, we had discovered that gold cats seemed to be friendlier than average.

Not long after that, around the beginning of October, Rose came to the shelter to visit Chris. He did not disappoint and showered her with attention like he did to me that first meeting. Alas, we still were not ready for another cat, partially because we had a cruise coming up.

Chris meets Rose

Not long after we returned from the cruise, Rose had to go to Alabama to attend a meeting. While she was there, I was at the shelter for another reason and was again warmly greeted by Chris, who seemed at the time like he was a relatively good cat. If only I knew then what I know now… Who am I kidding? I would still adopt him but I not so sure Rose would. Anyway, while I was there, someone used my phone to photograph Chris and I, which I sent to Rose with the message “Can we keep him?”

Can we keep him?

I believe the response was in the affirmative but I wanted to wait for her to see him once again and share in the decision, just in case it was a bad one.

Rose got home from her trip on Friday, November 13 and the next day we went to the shelter to make the final decision. Next time I’ll talk about the big day. I hope you will join me again.

Life before Chris

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Before I tell you about Chris, I feel I need to describe our circumstances that led to his adoption. I guess the best place to start is with another bad cat, Holly.

My sister-in-law is a cat lover who works at a vet and has adopted several wayward cats along the way. One cat, Holly, stands out among the others because of all the trouble she is constantly getting into. Whenever we visit there, my wife, Rose, would get a kick out of Holly’s antics. We would always joke that we were going to take her home because she is such a character.

Holly investigating Gifts

Of course, we were not serious because we had five cats of our own. The oldest cat princess we got as a kitten around 2002. She was part of a litter of feral cats and somehow had most of her tail ripped off. Rose felt bad for the tailless kitten (with fleas) so we took her in. She turned out to be an affectionate, but demanding…cat.

Princess

The next two cats, Abbey and Alex, who happen to be brother and sister, we adopted in 2005 when they were about a year old. Alex was a very friendly cat who liked everyone and Abbey was very shy but affectionate, once she got to know you.

Tigger and Flash came next. Tigger was adopted by Rose’s mom but the shelter called the next day wanting him back because his brother could not be separated from him. Since her mom was not ready for two cats, we took them both. Tigger was a very friendly kitten but his brother, Flash was extremely nervous. We named him Flash because when you tried to pet him he was gone in a flash. He did eventually warm up to me but he stayed nervous around strangers.

Clockwise from left: Abbey, Flash, Alex and Tigger

In the summer of 2009 my wife got a promotion and transfer from Florida to South Carolina. Princess stayed with Rose’s son, Nick and the other four went with us. I had some difficulty finding a job there and when I did it was part-time. I worked about 30 hours a week depending on demand and decided to Volunteer my extra time.

I started at the Myrtle Beach Humane Society. They needed dog walkers and people to let cats out of their cages for exercise. I decided to help with the cats but soon realized it was like spitting in the ocean. They had over 200 cats, most in small cages by themselves. If that wasn’t bad enough, we were only allowed to take one cat out at a time and it seemed only a small percentage would get out of their cage on any given day. I felt bad leaving there because they really needed the help but I needed to do something more meaningful.

My neighbor volunteered at a place called Sav-R-Cats so I decided to give that a try. The Sav-R-Cats shelter was quite smaller than the Humane Society and a bit disorganized but I liked the fact that the cats were in much bigger cages and most were let out during the day to play with each other. Many cats did not even have cages and were left out 24/7. It was here that I was able to actually contribute and it was here that I would meet trouble with a capital C.

Sav-R-Cats shelter

Next time I will talk about my first encounter with Chris and how we ended up adopting him.

Introduction

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This is the story of Bad Cat Chris. That’s more his description than his name, but you get the idea. Normally I would not dream of writing a blog about a pet cat but Chris is not like any other cat that I, or anyone else who has met him, has ever seen. Everything about Chris is extreme. He is extremely friendly, affectionate and funny, heavy on the funny. Of course, there is a bad side and his is extremely bad. I’m not talking about an evil bad, he is more like a problem child.

Chris was adopted and we don’t know his exact age but he is approximately three years old, perhaps as much as three and a half. His mental age, on the other hand, is about three months. He is a kitten that has never grown up.

My plan for this blog is to start out describing the early days, what led us to adopting him, the difficulties we had and what has changed. Eventually I want to catch up to the present day and talk about the daily struggles and rewards of taking care of a “Bad Cat.” I hope you’ll join me for more stories.

This is Chris on my shoulders, doing what he has done since the day we met.