I want to first thank everyone who wished me well during my Covid adventure. My wife and I are fine now and I went back to work yesterday.
While I was out sick, Frankie hounded me to take him outside. I finally gave in and took him out on Sunday. It is amazing how loud he is until that door opens and then not a peep.
Once we got outside, he first had to inspect Rose’s car.
We then walked around the neighborhood, stopping at every plant that smelled interesting.
When it was Chris’s turn to go outside he did his usual happy roll.
It didn’t take him long after that to find the catnip plant that I am growing.
Now that he knows it is there he will probably make a beeline for it next time he goes outside.
Chris loves hanging out on the rocking chair we bought in West Virginia and Floki loves hanging out with Chris, especially when he washes those hard-to-reach places.
Our cats, particularly Chris and Floki, like to lie under the Christmas tree. That was fine until we started accumulating presents. So to keep them happy and prevent torn gifts, I created a no-gift zone.
We may be a little crazy.
In case you are wondering, several of those presents were for my son, his girlfriend and my two-year-old grandson. They came for dinner last night and opened presents so now we have more room.
We got a package the other day and after Rose opened it she put the box on the bed where Frankie immediately lied in it. Not much time passed before I noticed Chris was in the box.
I assumed he bullied his way into the box but I didn’t see it happen.
A little more time passed and then Frankie was back in the box.
It’s amazing how much better Frankie fits in the box than Chris does. I suppose we need to buy bigger stuff in the future.
I took Frankie for a walk the other day. As usual, Frankie goes out first because he is the biggest pain about going outside. When we get back, it is then Chris’s turn.
This walk went as it usually does. Frankie smelled some plants, marked a bush, and then settled down in the sun.
We were out for about thirty minutes. During that time Chris was eagerly awaiting our return. Rose said he lied in the dining room window the entire time. Rose sent me the photo below while I was out but I didn’t see it until I returned.
Floki joined Chris but I’m sure he was there to be with Chris and probably didn’t even realize Frankie and I were outside.
When it finally was Chris’s turn to go outside, he did his usual things, lie on the driveway, eat grass, etc. When it was time to go in he did something he has not done since teaching the move to Frankie, he went under my truck to avoid capture.
No matter how old Chris gets, he is still full of surprises.
Here is a photo from eleven years ago today. This is Chris and Tigger napping together. I know it is hard to get used to but Chris is actually the skinny cat in this picture.
I mostly stopped volunteering when I got my lastest job early in the year. It was supposed to be part-time, about twenty hours a week, but the other part-time employee quit and it quickly turned into about thirty-five hours a week. I did manage to squeeze in a day here and there but then we went to West Virginia for two months.
Things have slowed down at work lately and it seems I might be able to consistently get Fridays off so I signed up for a shift last Friday. When I got there I noticed things had not changed much. Cats still needed homes and people still came around looking for cats
There were a fair number of kittens as well as adults cats. It seemed there were a lot of very friendly black cats that day.
There was also a Siamese kitten there.
I texted Rose his photo and she wanted me to adopt him but several minutes later someone came in with his paperwork wanting to adopt him. When a person wants to adopt a cat they take the cat’s paperwork to the adoption office. I imagine these people grabbed his paperwork so nobody else would take him and then wondered around the shelter in case they found a better option.
The Siamese was part of a group of kittens that were very cute and funny. I learned later they were all from the same litter even though only one was Siamese. I know a litter could be from more than one father so maybe that was the case.
While I was standing outside the cage talking to someone, one of the kittens climbed up the door and poked me in the back to get my attention.
Later I saw the same black kitten climb up the door but this time he had a copycat.
The Siamese cat climbed all the way to the top of the door.
I was worried he might hurt himself jumping down from that hight but I had to wait for him to get above the door so I could open it. Once inside I pulled the bench over to stand on and then had a hard time separating the cat from the cage.
The friendliest cat in the shelter and the one I most wanted to bring home was Berry.
Berry had a bad eye infection that the vets could not get under control so they had to remove his eye on Monday. I felt so bad because he was so very much in need of attention. I opened his cage a few times to pet him and he was just all over me. I have a video that I will try to post soon.
Alas, as much as we want to save them all it is just not realistic to think we can adopt another cat, especially since we already have two more than we are suppose to have.
The weather has been pretty nice here lately so I opened one of the windows in the cats’ room. They can see fine with shut windows but having one open, even a crack, lets all the smells in. Opening it further would only risk someone pushing out the screen.
I missed a good picture of Frankie standing on the edge of the litter box so he could stick his nose out the window. Chris was napping in the living room and never noticed it.
Bad Cat Chris 