Tag Archives: Cats

Scratch One Catnip Plant

When my wife asked what I wanted for Christmas, I didn’t know. I eventually gave her two choices: a plant stand with a grow light or a vintage medium-format film camera. She bought the camera. But the story doesn’t end here. My stepson, who is quite the amature horticulturist, discovered I was interested in growing plants inside and sent me a top-of-the-line grow light for Christmas.

After Christmas, I ordered the plant stand because I couldn’t let that light just sit there in the box. It arrived a few days ago and I assemble it on Saturday. The day before, I picked up three planters and three plants at Home Depot. I wanted to get more but they only had three planters in stock that were the size I wanted and that did not cost an arm and a leg. A also purchased potting soil as well as three plants: basil, mint, and catnip.

After assembling the plant stand and connecting the light, I put my herbs on the top shelf. As soon as I did that I sat in the living room and texted my stepson, Nick. I asked him how long I should leave the light on and at what intensity.

When I finished typing I looked through the door and saw Chris stretched as far as he could reach. He had one paw on the catnip plant and it was starting to tip over. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” I yelled, as I quickly made my way out to the Florida room. Chris let go but now Frankie and Floki were interested in what was going on.

I decided to put the catnip on the ground so they wouldn’t knock it over.

After a little while, I put the catnip plant outside. I also put a bungee cord around the other plants.

Sunday I found more planters and I bought more plants to put in them. So far I have sweet basil, sweet mint, speramint, thyme, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and no catnip.

I can only hope now that the remaining plants are not so interesting. I also hope that the feral cat I see sometimes doesn’t destroy the catnip that I put outside.

For the Love of Whipped Cream

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My wife had the can of whipped cream out the other day. As soon as Chris and Frankie heard that beautiful sound, their ears perked up. I gave them a little and Frankie licked it off the lid I put it on. Next time I will have to provide him with a spoon.

Photo Friday: I told You There Was Room

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Here is Tigger, Chris, and Abbey eleven years ago today. Chris would often insert himself between Tigger and Abbey. If there wasn’t room, he would make room.

Merry Christmas to All

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Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, we wish you much joy and happiness, today and every day.

Classic Tigger and Flash

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Here are brothers Tigger and Flash taken on this day in 2009.

Tigger, the ginger boy, was adopted by my mother-in-law in 2005. The shelter called the next day saying that Puck was essentially freaking out without his brother. They wanted her to adopt Puck or return Tigger. Since she didn’t want two cats and we didn’t want to send him back to the shelter, we adopted both, bringing our cat count up to six.

As a side note, their original names were Dooley and Ernie, but I forgot who was Ernie and who was Dooly.

Photo Friday: Cat Trio and Birthday

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Here is Abbey, Tigger, and Chris from 12 years ago yesterday, December 8, 2010.

Today also would have been my dad’s 83rd birthday. After almost 24 years, he is still very much missed.

I believe this was taken at his parent’s 50th anniversary in early 1986.

New Beds

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We had a couple of cat beds on the cat trees in the Florida room. My wife decided it was time to wash them so I put them in the washing machine. When I took them out I noticed one of them was ripped pretty bad so I had to throw it away.

Last weekend we were in Marshall’s and they had and entire row of shelves, on both sides, with just pet beds. I picked out a good size rectangular bed for Chris but Rose wanted to get an extra one for Floki so we bought a smaller round one for him.

When we got home I didn’t want to put the beds on the cat trees right away because Rose had put something else down when she removed the beds. I don’t remember if they were folded up blankets or what but I thought I would wait until those needed washing before replacing them with the beds. Without knowing what to do with the beds, I put Chris’s bed on the Floor in the living room. Almost immediately Chriswas nappingin his new bed..

I changed my mind about replacing the blankets and put the good washed bed and Floki’s bet out in the Florida room.

They went unnoticed. Instead, Floki took over Chris’s bed when he got up.

We felt that because Chris is old and doesn’t like to jump anymore he would prefer his bed on the floor. So we decided to keep his bed there and put Floki’s bed next to his since Floki likes to hang out with Chris. What we didn’t expect was that the cats wouldn’t understand who’s bed belongs to who.