Tag Archives: Cats

New Furniture, Bad Cats

30 Replies

We recently got rid of some old furniture in our Florida room, including the sofa that started Puck pooping outside the litter box, and had a new trundle bed delivered. My wife went to Badcock without me and ordered it from a catalog They didn’t have a sample in the store.

It arrived the Thursday before last. Rose was in Orlando for business and I had to stay home and wait for delivery. When they arrived, I had to lock out the cats so the guys could come in and out as well as put everything together without being bothered.

Chris was very interested and Floki was not as nervous as I expected.

Frankie was indifferent.

After it was put together and they needed a signature I asked where the mattresses were. They said it didn’t come with mattresses. I said I’m sure my wife didn’t intend to buy this without mattresses.

Sure enough, the salesman never informed her that the mattresses in the photo were not included. You would think he would want to make more money by selling more products. But on a positive note, the cats loved being able to climb through to the bottom.

We also got a cabinet for the kitchen that was designed to look old. That way when the cats scratch it, nobody will notice.

We had to cover the trundle bed for a week until the new mattresses arrived but nobody minded, especially Chris.

One day after the bed arrived, Frankie decided to make it unreturnable by digging holes in it. Rose was not happy with him.

When the mattresses did arrive, Rose put new sheets on them and covered the bed with a blanket. The next morning Puck pooped on it.

Now we have to have pee pads on it. This is our life with cats.

On a separate note, Puck did not pee outside the box between Monday morning and Saturday morning, but we did wake up the last two mornings to pee. Very disappointing.

Photo Friday: Cats of Thanksgiving

19 Replies

We went to my sister-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving and I was told I need to ignore the cats and take family pictures. I think I managed to get one photo of my wife and her mother and that was it. Nobody wanted to get together for a group photo. The good news is that I didn’t ignore the cats and I have some cute photos for you.

Is it safe to come out yet?

No! Stay where you are. It’s not safe. I’ll take care of your turkey.

Just stay away from my turkey!

I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.

Do you feel a draft?

The door is open, ya know.

I think I need a new coat.

I still can’t believe I ate the whole thing.

We are ready to pack up the leftovers.

Morning Mayhem

21 Replies

This story happened on Monday of last week and involves three bad cats.

My wife, Rose, recently developed wrist pain and she sometimes wakes up and can’t go back to sleep because of it. On this day she got up at about 3:15 in the morning. As I was trying to go back to sleep I heard her open the outside door to throw something out and then I heard her yell at Frankie. She then announced, “Frankie got out.”

That morning happened to be the coldest this season and I was tired and I didn’t want to get up at 3:15 in the morning to chase Frankie around the neighborhood. I knew he would come back so I tried to go back to sleep but him being outside bothered me so I eventually dragged myself out of bed, put on some warm clothes and a jacket, and went out to look for him.

The Jacket I had on was a Florida jacket and didn’t come close to fulfilling its job of keeping me warm. I walked around the area for 15 minutes looking for Frankie but eventually got too cold and had to go home.

I decided to go back to bed because I was very tired but now Chris and Puck were on the bed. I just left them there and got into bed.

Everything was fine for a short time and I almost fell asleep but then Chris started bothering me. He positioned himself next to my face and started licking and biting my nose. When I turned my head away, he started digging his claws into my neck and the back of my head. I tried pushing him away but he kept coming back. Eventually, Rose heard what was going on and came in to help. She removed all the cats from the bedroom and closed the door so I could go back to sleep.

After a little while of trying to go back to sleep, I heard the door open and I heard Rose say, “Come inside you bad boy.” Frankie was back. That made me feel better but I had another problem.

Just before or just after Frankie came back, I don’t remember, I felt Puck get on the bed. Appearently, Rose did not remove all the cats from the bedroom. That concerned me a little because the last time he was trapped in the bedroom he peed on the bed and on me. I tried to put that thought out of my mind but before too much time passed I felt a very warm feeling against my leg. He did it again! He peed on the bed! And he peed on me!

That woke me up fast. I got out of bed and gathered up all the sheets and threw them outside to be washed. Then I got in the shower before I did anything else.

Fortunately, we had a mattress cover on the bed which protected our mattress and our expensive foam mattress pad. I replaced the sheets and blanket with a new set and I put the other ones in the wash.

Washing clothes in our house is a step-by-step process. I might put a load in the washing machine in the morning before I go to work and then put it in the dryer when I get home. We have a high-efficiency washer and dryer but the dryer is not very efficient. Even at the driest setting it never dries on the first try. Since the machines are outside, I never hear the buzzer when they’re done so I always have to remember, which is something I am not good at.  Sometimes it will take a full day or more to wash, dry and remove clothes from the dryer. Eventually, I got everything out and folded but decided to wait until we changed the sheets, which we always do on Saturday morning, before putting the mattress cover back on. Bad decision.

Friday morning Rose got up to use the bathroom and all the cats busted through the door when she opened it. This time it was a more reasonable hour. It was almost time to get up anyway. Chris and Puck jumped on the bed like they usually do while I waited for Rose to get out of the bathroom.

When I got up and walked towards the bathroom I touched the foot of the bed for some reason and noticed it was wet. Puck peed on it again! I couldn’t believe it. He was only in our room for two minutes. This time there was no cover to protect the bed.

I pulled the sheets up and I pulled up the mattress pad and noticed some of the pee had gone down through four inches of foam into the mattress. I was able to save the mattress with some urine eliminator but the mattress pad was a goner.

The rest of the story is only appropriate for an R-rated blog.

Photo Friday: Besties

19 Replies

Even though Chris seems to sleep with Frankie more often than Puck, I think it is Chris and Puck who are probably the two best friends in our house. They are the only two that I never see fight with each other, except for a rare whap now and then. Puck often sleeps in the cubicle on the cat perch or sometimes he naps at the opposite end of the house as everyone else. That might explain why Chris chooses to sleep with Frankie more often.

cute cats lying together

Puck Stands His Ground

20 Replies

I think I mentioned before that Frankie is a bit of a bully and that contributes, at least in part, to Puck’s stress and litter box issues. But while Puck may be stressed by Frankie, he is not intimidated by him. Fights happen all the time in our house but the most aggressive and unplayful fights happen between Puck and Frankie.

We had a night or two of cold weather last week and Rose had out a small blanket to keep her legs warm. On Friday morning I noticed the blanket was still out so I folded it and placed it on one of the cushions. I thought one of the cats would like to lie on it. I was right. Puck found it to be quite comfortable.

That evening, as Rose and I were watching television, Frankie attacked Puck while he was lying on that blanket. There were hissing and screaming and fur flying and yelling (from us humans) and when the dust settled Frankie was in possession of the blanket. But Puck wasn’t done  . . .

He jumped back up and plopped himself down on the blanket right next to Frankie as if to dare him to try to knock him off again. Chris saw what was going on and added his considerable weight to the blanket issue (and his weight is considerable).

cute cats on sofa

In the end, Frankie capitulated and peace was again restored in the land.

cute cats on sofa

Photo Friday: Stray Cats After Hurricane Irma

18 Replies

My wife’s sister and her husband have several of their own cats and take care of strays as well, both near their home and near her work. When we stayed there during Hurricane Irma, there were three strays that stayed in the garage. The morning after the hurricane I captured this picture of one of them hanging out by the front door.

stray cat

The cat below found comfort on the back of a motorcycle in the garage.

stray cat on motercycle

These cats have names but I don’t remember what they are. I know that the life of a stray is not easy but for these lucky few, it’s not bad.

Surviving Hurricane Irma With Cats – Part Two

33 Replies

If you missed part one of this story you can see it here.

I didn’t want to leave the house we rented as a shelter. It was too much stress to pack up the cats again and I thought we would be fine where we were but Rose felt the storm’s path made it unsafe and I wanted her to feel comfortable about where we were, so we quickly got our stuff together and put the cats in the carriers. This time we put Chris in the small carrier and somehow managed to get three cats in the big carrier. It wasn’t the most comfortable for the boys but they were okay.

My electric car did not have enough charge to get there so I had to stop at a charging station on the way. Fortunately, that was easier than finding gas.

When we got to Felice and Jeff’s house they had a bedroom set up for us with two litter boxes. We put the cats inside and that is where they stayed. Everbody hid under the bed at first, even Chris, who was way more stressed than I expected him to be.

I’m sure the room was full of smells from the resident cats and that was probably why Frankie spent the first two hours hissing and whacking everyone, even Rose and me. The cats that gave up their room were not happy either.

Surprisingly, it was little, shy Floki that come out from under the bed first.

Eventually, Chris and Frankie came out too.

Watching the weather became old very quick but we would turn it on periodically to see if anything new developed. I tried to hang out with the cats occasionally to help keep them calm but I also didn’t want to be rude and ignore the people in the house.

I got to see Puck use the litter box for the second time in as many days and thought that there was a silver lining in all this.

litter boxes

At one point we heard the storm made landfall at Marco Island, near Naples. That was much farther south than expected and good news for us because a hurricane that moves over land loses its energy. Of course, it was not good for the people in the Naples area.

The worst of the storm was supposed to occur between midnight and 4:00 a.m. Since all the windows were covered there seemed no point to stay up to watch it so we went to bed a little after 10:00. By that time we never saw anything worse than some rain and a heavy breeze.

I guess Rose and I were pretty tired because we slept through the worst of it and woke up around 5:00. We didn’t want to wake anybody so it was more than an hour before I could look outside. When I did I saw little evidence that a hurricane passed us by. Jeff had an app on his phone that said wind speeds reached 105 miles per hour where we were at around midnight. I was amazed it didn’t wake us up. I was also amazed that we never lost power.

The county that we live in, Pinellas, closed its borders. They would not let anyone in until they declared the roads safe to drive on. That meant we had to stay a while before we could leave for home. I spent the time watching the weather and taking pictures of the resident cats. The picture below is the grown-up kitten we wanted to adopt before Floki but Felice and Jeff claimed him first (see here). The cat outside is one of three strays that took shelter in the garage.

At 10:00 a.m I heard the roads were open so we packed our stuff up and put the cats their carriers. This time Felice gave us a carrier so they were all able to ride home in relative comfort.

A tree had fallen over the road out so I had to turn around and go around the block. The damage to buildings in the area seemed minimal, except for an unlucky few. There were a fair number of trees down and lots of branches on the roads but overall it was much better than expected. Almost half the traffic lights were out and everyone here thinks they need to treat them as a two-way stop. I think the most surprising thing I saw was a billboard that looked like Godzilla attacked it.

Forgive the quality, this is a partial frame from a dash cam video.

I went straight home with the cats and Rose went to check on her mother’s house. Her home survived but she had no power. When I entered our neighborhood, I saw two homes at the end of our street with part of their roofs ripped off. There was also a palm tree lying half way across the street. That worried me a little but the only damage I saw to our house was that three large planters blew over and two of them cracked, one of which was already cracked. We even had power and our alarm clock wasn’t blinking so we never lost power.

I brought the cats inside and they were so happy to be back. None of them lingered in the carrier for even a second. It wasn’t long before they were all on the bed ready for a nap. It was like we had never left.