Since returning from West Virginia, Frankie and Chris have enjoyed much more outside time, although not as much as they would like. Our trips outside usually start with Frankie who gets really excited when he knows, or thinks he knows, when I am getting ready to take him out. My wife has to get him even more excited by saying things like, “Are you going outside, Frankie? Oh boy, you’re going outside!”
Once outside, after the initial excitement wears off, we usually spend time smelling stuff, especially plants.
When the smelling is done it is time to lie in the dirt.
Sometimes he pulls a Harry Houdini on me and starts to slip out of his harness.
When that happens it is usually too risky to try to fix it “in the field” so I will pick him up and carry him home while he hisses at me the whole way there. Usually, by that time we already had a good walk and Chris is at home waiting for his turn.
The first thing Chris does when he gets outside is do the “happy roll.” This is something I never see him do inside.
He then does a little exploring but he usually stays close to home which is why he doesn’t need a harness, although I still need to watch him because he sometimes wanders away.
Eventually he finds some grass to munch on.
After that he sometimes lies down for a few minutes and is then ready to go inside. I don’t have to carry him home while being hissed at.
Chris loves napping in his bed by the window but Wednesday Floki was sleeping in it. I heard growling and hissing and looked to see Chris standing over Floki. I didn’t see what Chris did to him but I did see Floki leave the cat bed and then Chris lie down and take a nap. A little later I saw this.
I was looking through videos and came across one from December and thought that it was a perfect example of what happens around here just about every day. Usually Frankie and Chris get along pretty well but then, all of a sudden, there is a cat fight. This fight usually, but not always, has Frankie as the agressor while Chris defends himself while lying down.
I’m not sure how this lying down defense makes much practical sense but I am not an expert at cat fighting.
I used to think cat grass was a perineal, like regular grass, and that I was just somehow terrible at keeping it growing. Now I realize that it is not like regular grass and will always die after a few weeks. I don’t know for sure but knowing how everything centers around money in America, I assume the seeds are picked less for the cat’s benefit and more for the benefit of the company’s bottom line.
After my last batch of cat grass died I just left the pot outside for several months. I had no desire to try again but I was cleaning out my shed and noticed a half-used bag of cat grass seeds and decided to give it another go. I knew it wouldn’t last but I still thought it would be worth it for the cats’ sake.
After a week or two the grass was tall enough to bring in for the cats.
As expected, Chris was the king of the grass-eating with Frankie a close second. Floki seemed to show just a mild curiosity. I guess I need to accept the realty and just replant the cat grass every so often.
I returned to volunteering at the SPCA three Fridays ago and was pleased that the number of cats had not increased since before I went to West Virginia. Indeed, it may have even decreased.
When I first started volunteering, about a year and a half ago, the shelter was close to full. There are eight pods designed for eight cats each and all the pods usually had between five and eight cats. In addition there are two more rooms that often house either a group of kittens or special needs cats, such as FIV positive cats. Then there is a room that contains about eight to ten individual cages. They call that room “Shoreline” for a reason I am unfamiliar with. There is also another room with about eight more similar cages. These usually house cats that are fresh out of surgery, cats that are on a special diet, or cats that don’t play well with others. I would estimate that there was a consistent number of between 50 and 75 cats at all times.
Then COVID hit and I feared that the number would go up because of restrictions on visitors and people’s general fear of going out. I was wrong. People stepped up and adopted like never before. By the time we left for West Virginia in November there were probably around twenty cats up for adoption.
When I returned there were cats in two of the eight pods and a few in the Shoreline cages. I was mostly happy that the shelter was low on cats but part of me was perhaps a little sefishly glad there were still a few there because I missed being able to interact with these cats.
The following week most of the cats were gone but were replaced by new cats.
I think the only holdover was this orange and white cat.
Yesterday there was a total of five cats when I came it for my shift. I did not get a photo of the tortie but here are the other four. The first two were adopted together while I was there.
While the woman was getting her adoption paperwork finalized someone from medical brought back two more cats that were now ready for adoption. One of them was six-year-old male ginger with the best name ever, “Lasagna.”
The other was a three-year-old female Bengal cat named “Phoenix.”
I was given the heads up about Phoenix and Lasagna before she brought them back so, knowing my wife wanted a Bengal cat, I texted her that a girl Bengal cat was coming. I told her if she wanted her she needed to come to see her right away and bring a carrier. She was excited at first and then was worried that four cats would be too difficult to bring to our other home. She also worried that she might disrupt the harmony in our house.
Indeed, she did some growling and hissing when she first arrived and when I opened the cage to see if I could calm her down she bolted and escaped. It took some effort to catch up to her and bring her back and she did not go back willingly.
Before I left, someone from medical came and brought back Lasagna. I’m not sure why but apparently he was not supposed to come out for adoption yet. When I left there were only four cats up for adoption, the lowest number I have seen since starting there.
This morning my wife changed her mind and decided she wanted to go see the Bengal cat. She asked me if I thought she would still be there and I said, “I doubt it but I will check.” I looked on the SPCA website and saw there were only two cats left and neither one was Pheonix. I checked again now, at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, and there are now zero cats up for adoption. This really is good news but now I wonder if I will be needed next week.
Before we went to our new house in West Virginia, Floki would often nap on the bed in the spare bedroom. We brought that bed with us so when we came back there was no bed there for Floki. That changed last weekend when we bought a new bed for that room. Now Floki is happy.
Notice Floki has his mouse with him.
I should say he was happy until Chris stole his spot yesterday.
After I took this Photo Floki got down and then he jumped back up and hissed at Chris. He didn’t get his spot back but he did make sure his voice was heard.
Yesterday morning Frankie was sleeping on the sofa and I saw Chris flop the full weight of his upper body on top of him. I knew Chris was too heavy for Frankie and this wouldn’t last long so I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped this photo.
Three seconds later, Frankie wiggled himself free and got down. Chris then went to take a nap in his cat bed and Frankie returned to the same spot on the sofa.
I was contacted by a company called Topeakmart to do a review of one of their cat trees. I missed it at the time but noticed it as I was cleaning my inbox. Normally I ignore unsolicited review requests but after checking out their website I thought their products looked appealing. In addition, we brought a couple of cat perches to our West Virginia home so I thought the cats would appreciate another one.
I was allowed to choose which product I wanted to review so I decided on the 51″ Cat Tree Condo. I could have gone with the 79″ Cat Tree Condo but I didn’t want to be greedy. Plus, I liked the 51″ tree because it had a ladder that I thought would be perfect for Chris. He is getting up there in age (and weight) and that ladder will probably be a big help in allowing him to get on it, especially in the future when he is even older and hopefully not heavier.
I should mention that I did get this cat tree for free in exchange for an honest review. They did not try to influence my review in any way but they did offer my readers a 15% discount (use code: chris15). If you choose to take advantage of the discount, I will not be compensated.
The cat tree arrived on Monday and I was surprised by how efficiently the box was packed. It was like stuffing 25 people in a phone booth.
I pulled out the instructions first to see what kind of project lay ahead of me. You may remember me writing a couple of months ago about putting a bed frame together as well as a desk for my wife. Both items were unbelievably complicated and I didn’t want another one of those. This one didn’t look too bad. I was disappointed at first that it was only illustrations and no written description but it seemed pretty straightforward.
I set up my GoPro camera and I put a clock in view to record how long the assembly process was, although it was difficult to see the clock in the final video. I set the video for two frames per second and got to work. As you can see, it went pretty well but I was delayed a bit by Frankie who had to get inside one of the pieces I was assembling. I also separated the screws at the beginning but still managed to get them mixed up and used the wrong screw on two separate occasions. I also screwed one of the posts into the wrong hole but that was because I jumped ahead without reading the directions.
It took me about 40 minutes to assemble the cat tree. I probably wasted about ten minutes with my careless mistakes and with stopping to deal with Frankie or take pictures. I estimate that a normal person without distractions could put it together in 30 minutes or less. If you have already seen it done, like in the video, perhaps twenty minutes is reasonable.
Frankie was the first to investigate the cat tree. As soon as I started putting it together he had to check it out.
Floki was next.
Frankie was also first to get on it when it was finished.
He seemed to like the cubby and ended up taking a nap there.
Later, Frankie checked out the upper part of the cat tree.
I’m not sure why but the cats seemed to think that this is a one at a time cat tree. As soon as Frankie got down Floki got up on it.
He had to check out every nook and cranny to make sure it met with his approval.
Chris was sleeping in his cat bed when I finished but as soon as he woke up he had to check it out too. I was in the kitchen making dinner so I did not see Chris take over the tree from Floki but I hope it was a peaceful transfer.
I left and came back a little later and Chris had moved to the bottom.
It seems a waste of a good cat tree to hang out at the very bottom but perhaps he was just enjoying the velvety softness of the carpet. It is amazingly soft compared to the carpet on our other cat tree.
So far they have not yet discovered the hammock that hangs near the bottom or the toy that hangs from the top perch but that just means more surprises for them in the future.
Overall I think this is a great cat tree that is well made and a practical design. It has one downside that I can see. The upper two posts are adequate for an average-sized cat but maybe not for a heavy cat like Chris. Of course, Chris would probably not attempt to jump up there, so I don’t see it as an issue. They have a blog post on their website called “4 Best Cat Trees for Large Cats in 2021 from Topeakmart” which I probably should have read before choosing a cat tree, but I think the one I picked is still a good choice for our cats.
Tell me you think? Would your cat’s enjoy a cat tree like this?
We have had a Turbo Scratcher for years and it has gone through many cats. It is one of the best cat toys we have ever had and most recently it was one of Floki’s two favorite toys, the other being the three-way cat tunnel. We brought both toys with us to West Virginia but came back with only the tunnel. There wasn’t much room in the car but I probably could have squeezed the Turbo Scratcher in with us but I just didn’t think about it.
The other day my wife reminded me that I needed to order another one so I looked on Amazon and found this one (affiliate link). It arived Saturday and as soon as I took it out of the package Chris was interested in it. Of course, it may be because I added a little of the included catnip.
Floki finally did get to play with his toy after Chris was done hogging it. By then Chris was more interested in the box that it came in.
That of course got Floki interested too.
Victory at last. Now things can get back to normal.
Bad Cat Chris 