Frankie and Floki get along well enough, but they typically don’t sleep close together. That is why it was a pleasure to see this.
The second photo was taken an hour and twenty minutes after the first, so it wasn’t like they were close by mistake. Unfortunately, since these pictures were taken over three weeks ago, I have not seen them so close again.
I threw out my back on Saturday and by this morning it was almost better until I bent to put my pants on. Now it’s worse than ever so I decided to sit on the sofa with my feet up and an ice pack behind my back.
After a little while my wife came into the room with a shocked look on her face. “I don’t believe it,” she said.
“What? What is it?”
“Look,” she said, pointing to the cats on the sofa to my left.
“Oh, wow! I don’t believe it.”
Seeing Floki and Frankie that close can only be compared to Iran inviting Israel over for a cup of tea. Okay, so that might be an extreme example, since they are not exactly enemies, but they haven’t been that close since the days of Chris.
As I write this, Frankie has left Floki and is demanding I take him for a walk. He can’t understand I am temporarily disabled.
Since Chris died, we don’t see the cat piles like we used to, but sometimes we take what we can get. If Chris were here, he would be in the gap, touching both of them.
Today, I have two memories to share with you. The first is Puck and Frankie with Chris in the background. This was taken on October 4, 2014.
You can’t take out a suitcase without attracting the attention of cats.
The second photo is of my grandmother, Sadie, my mom’s mom. She would have been 109 today. This photo was taken in October 1987.
Not coincidentally, Joe, one of the protagonists in my Last Healer Mysteries series, was born on October 3, 1916.
Here is an interesting cat toy I found on Amazon for only $10.
The toy moves randomly, which simulates real prey. I found that it really attracted our cats’ interest, but I was hoping it would be a good tool for getting our cats moving. They both can use some exercise, especially Floki, who doesn’t go outside for walks like Frankie does. I suppose the fact that Floki is over nine years old and Frankie is pushing fifteen has something to do with it.
One problem I noticed is that the toy’s tail got stuck on the floor a few times. The floor on our patio is not tile; it’s more like garden stones, which have a rough texture. I don’t know what the toy’s tail is made of, but it tended to stick to the floor like Velcro. I’m sure it would be fine inside the house.
If you are interested, here is a link to what I bought. It is an affiliate link, so if you make a purchase, I will finally be able to buy that yacht I’ve been looking at.
My wife put a wicker table on the catio a while ago, and it has become Frankie’s new favorite spot. Floki’s favorite spot is near where you see him in this photo. Apparently, they want to be where the neighbor’s dog can see them and get all riled up.
Frankie’s second favorite spot is near the house, but also on the catio. In fact, he spends nearly the entire day on the catio, only coming in to use the litter box and eat.
We all know that when outside cats fight, it can get brutal, but what about when inside cats fight? I don’t know about all inside cats, but at our house, it’s pretty tame. The exception would be the early fights between Chris and Frankie when Frankie first joined our family, and one other fight a year or two later between those two. It was so bad that we had to separate them between a closed door.
Other than that, fights at our house are more like roughhousing. Sometimes it seems they are fighting in slow motion. For example, here is Frankie and Floki last night.
Do your cats fight? If so, how do they fight?
Yesterday, I heard barking outside that reminded me of the barking I heard outside years ago when a Pit Bull was in our backyard trying to get our neighbor’s cat, Casper. You can read that story here.
The barking sounded close, and I knew our cats were on the back porch, so I hurried outside to see what was going on. Sure enough, our next-door neighbor’s dog was outside in their yard. The dog had no supervision, which was okay since it was in a fenced-in yard, but it had pulled one of the fence slats off and also pulled away the chicken wire attached to the other side.
I tried talking to the dog calmly, but it would not stop barking. It wanted our cats just as much as the pit bull wanted Frankie a couple of weeks ago. It tried crawling under the fence a couple of times, but the chicken wire was just enough in the way to prevent it. I’m sure that if the dog kept trying, it would have made it under the fence. It then surely would have taken no time to rip through the screens.
I took a less-than-great photo just before the neighbor’s door opened, and the sound of a whistle caused the dog to go inside.
The funny, or not-so-funny thing about the incident is that both cats were standing near the screen closest to the dog. This makes me worry that if a dog does get into our backyard, the cats won’t have enough sense to run into the house.
This morning, I put a couple of nails in the fence slat. Hopefully, that will hold the dog back.
The second half of our trip started well. The cats seemed to be comfortable in the Ikare Pet Carrier I bought for them. With the pullouts on the side, there was plenty of room for two cats and a small litter box. I think three cats would have done well in it. They never used the litter box but we had to deal with cats pooping in their carriers at least twice in the past, so it was worth having.
The second time we stopped I gave them a little food while we were charging the car.
By the time we got to Charleston, West Virginia, we were tired and looking forward to the trip being over. The GPS indicated that we would arrive in forty-five minutes, at 2:37, but then a warning light appeared. The rear passenger tire pressure had dropped to 28 psi. There was an exit ahead, so Rose got in the right lane. I was hoping the tire was just low and I could fill it with my portable tire inflator, but thirty seconds later the pressure dropped to 15 p.s.i.
Fortunately, there was a gas station just off the highway, so we pulled in there. By then, the pressure had dropped to zero.
Rose first called our insurance company, and they put us on hold for a long time as they tried to find someone who could tow a Tesla, which requires a flatbed. While she was doing that, I called Tesla and spoke with a woman who was very nice. Since we were nowhere near a Tesla service center, she tried to help us find a local tire shop that could change a tire. Since Teslas do not come with spare tires, there was no option for changing it on the spot.
After much hemming and hawing, we decided to arrange for a tow truck to bring our car the 41 miles to our house. Tesla would have paid for a tow to a service center, but a tow to our house cost us $370. We did that because there was no room for three people and two cats in the tow truck. If it were just Rose and me, we would have gone straight to a tire shop, if one could have been found that had the right size tires.
Rose called the maintenance supervisor at the property she oversees, which is in the same town as our house. He came to pick up Rose and the cats. Meanwhile, the tow truck arrived a few minutes before he did. The driver was nice enough to wait until he came, then Rose and the cats left while I stayed with the tow truck.
I arrived at the house just before five and spent a fair amount of time bringing all the items from the car to the laundry room, which serves as a buffer zone between the cats and the outside. I couldn’t believe how much stuff that car holds.
I wanted to get a video of the cats exploring the house for the first time in three and a half years, but I was way too late for that. Instead, I got a picture of Frankie finishing his dinner.
Two of the doors on the catio had ripped screens, so we couldn’t let the cats out there, which was a shame because they loved that catio. Frankie discovered the room that used to be my office, but now contained much of the stuff that we left behind.
Unfortunately, our renters moved bedding that they didn’t want into that room. They also moved heavy furniture from downstairs to upstairs and other furniture from upstairs to downstairs, so we had to move them back over the next couple of days.
We found a cat perch that Frankie took to and spent much of the remaining Saturday on. I don’t remember that perch, but I am getting old.
On Sunday, I found a large screen in the garage and slid it in front of the doors. Since my tools and everything else we had in storage won’t be here until sometime this week, that will have to do for the cats to enjoy the catio.
I took Frankie for a walk on Sunday. I wanted him to get used to the area but he just wanted to stay near home for some reason.
We went for a walk yesterday, too. That time we walked down the alley until the end, then came back down the next street. He wants to go out today, but there is a cold drizzle right now.
All the tire shops were closed for Memorial Day weekend, so I made several calls to shops this morning, but none had the right size tires, which are over $500 each, by the way. When did tires get so expensive? One shop in Parkersburg ordered them and will be here sometime tomorrow. I will then have to travel with the tow truck driver for forty minutes. That is the downside of living in a small town.
Tomorrow will be four days without a car at a time when we need supplies. We learned Walmart delivers, so we have been ordering stuff from them. The interesting thing is that there are no Kroger stores near us in Florida, but we can still order Kroger delivery. Here, there is a Kroger in the next town, but we can’t get delivery from them.
Anyway, the good news is we are here and safe. Ultimately, that is what matters.
These photos were taken almost sixteen years ago on May 10, 2009. If my new timeline is correct, Chris was a small kitten 500 miles away at the time.
We had a condo on the Gulf in Dunedin, Florida. Some units faced the Gulf but ours faced a canal. On this day, I sat on the deck with Tigger and Alex.
Until I saw this photo this morning, I never remembered that I put a harness of Alex. Perhaps he was a runner like Frankie. I don’t know.
Bad Cat Chris 