Tag Archives: Cats

In the Path of Hurricane Ian

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My wife has tickets to go to a trade show in Hollywood, Florida. She planned on driving down there on Tuesday but the threat of Hurricane Ian made her decide to leave a day early so she could get there before the storm made driving difficult. Of course, our cats are always there to help pack.

As she packed last night, the forecast showed what they call the spaghetti model. It was about a dozen different paths, all ending in the Florida Panhandle. We thought the chance of it hitting here was pretty low. We also know that history has shown that our county, Pinellas, never gets hit by a hurricane. Of course, there is always a first time.

You may remember us evacuating before Hurricane Irma. You can read about that here and here. For that storm, we booked an Airbnb in St. Petersburg and then left there for my sister-in-law’s when the forecast shifted the storm’s path directly to where we were staying. In the end, the storm hit farther south and moved east of us. We could have stayed home because we had almost no damage.

I did not watch the weather this morning because I overslept and was rushing to help my wife pack her car and get to work. I also did not watch it while I was at work. On the way home I got an emergency alert which I did not look at because I was driving. My wife saw it, though, and called me and said we were under a mandatory evacuation. I was surprised given the fact that the storm was headed to the Panhandle. I figured since we live in a mobile home they were being annoyingly cautious.

When I got home I checked the weather and the path had shifted east. Now it was projected to hit northern Pinellas County as a possible category three hurricane, about fifteen miles from where I live. Of course, there is that cone of uncertainty that could bring it closer, or farther, but either way, it is a big storm so there is little chance of escaping it now.

We probably should have booked a hotel or another Airbnb but all the models showed it going west so we waited too long. Now the only rooms available are the ones on the beach. Rose’s sister offered her condo for us to use but her condo building is on the water. It might be built strong enough to stand up to a hurricane but the parking lot is under the building so my car would surely be underwater.

As of now I will just be staying here and hoping for the best. The last thing I want to do is try to carry three cats, one of whom is twenty pounds, to an emergency shelter by myself. I will close off the Florida room and bring their food and litter boxes into the bedroom. If it gets really bad I will shut us all in the bedroom. I also have ther carriers in the house, just in case, and will look for their collars. I want them to have collars in case we get separated. My only worry now is someone will come to my house and make us leave.

Florida Room Versus Arizona Room

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In my last post, I talked about our Florida room and jokingly suggested my mother was wrong for calling her Florida room an Arizona room. I had several comments about the various names of the room and decided to look them up. I read several articles and will try to generalize what I learned.

A Florida room is also called a sunroom and sometimes a three-season room or a solarium. It is an addition to a home that has windows on three sides, either glass or screens, and is meant as sort of a buffer between outside and inside. It is usually in the back of the house, but not always, as is our case. It can also be called a Florida room in states other than Florida because it is based on something that is popular in Florida.

According to Wikipedia, an Arizona room is “based on similar concepts as the Florida room,” and “is often decorated with Southwestern decor and furniture.”

There you have it. Everything you wanted to know about the room that I call “the cat’s room.”

Keeping the Ear Clean

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It seems like Chris has a perpetual ear infection due to his overabundance of ear pollyps. It was in both ears but now it is only in his left ear. I got a different medicine from the vet and have been putting it in his ear pretty regularly but we have been inconsistent when it comes to cleaning his ears. Perhaps because putting in the medicine is easy but cleaning his ears involves a lot of struggling and frustration. Fortunately, Floki has taken over the ear cleaning duties and he does a great job with far less struggling from Chris.

Floki even knows it is his left ear that needs cleaning.

Our New Cat Bowls

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As mentioned in a previous post, my wife broke one of our cat bowls. The new bowls I bought didn’t fit in the stand and turning the stand upside down was not the genius move I thought it was because the bowls slid off too easy.

I looked through the bowls on Amazon and found a two-bowl set that looked like a great replacement. (Keep in mind that the above link is an affiliate link so if you make a purchase I will finally be able to buy that beach house in Hawaii that I always wanted.)

The bowls look similar to Floki’s bowl.

Floki has his own bowl but it really is every cat for himself. I sometimes put Floki’s bowl on the table so Chris won’t make a pig out of himself and eat all the dry food. I have to stop doing that, though, because it annoys my wife.

As soon as I put food in the new bowls, Frankie and Chris were there eating it. I want to say they liked their new bowls but I’m sure if I put food in a garbage can lid it wouldn’t matter.

The new bowls have a tilt to them. I wasn’t sure what the tilt was for until I read the description: “Tilt Angle Design – Keeps food piled nicely or falls to the center, prevent cat food from pushing off the bowl and keep the eating environment clean.” I’m sure this was written by someone who has been studying English for well over a week. In any case, I got the idea. It is designed to keep food in the center and it seems to work. Check out the difference between Floki’s bowl and the two tilted ones after the cats were done eating.

I don’t know how this would work for wet food. I have a different set of bowls for their wet food.

These bowls are good in some ways because they are wide and shallow, which cats like, and there is a silicone outer layer to catch dropped food. The main problem with them is the food tends to get pushed against the edge where it is harder to eat. There is always food left behind so I collect the bowls and then combine the food into the center of one of them. Usually, Frankie will come back later to finish it.

So what do you think? Does anyone else have tilted bowls?