Tag Archives: Cats

Photo Friday: Three’s a Crowd

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I was sitting at the computer the other day when I felt a cat jump on my chair behind me. I was busy writing so I didn’t bother to look to see who it was, I just scooted up a bit and continued writing. A short time later I felt like I was being pushed off my chair, so I got up to see what was going on and this is what I saw.

cats Chris and Floki on my computer chair

In case you can’t tell by the backside, that’s Chris with his face in the sunbeam and, of course, that is Floki behind him. Does anyone else have pets that take over their chairs?

Catit Senses Treat Maze for Cats

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Recently, I had to purchase something on Amazon and wanted to add something to my order so the total would be over $49 and qualify for free shipping. I decided to try the Catit Design Senses Treat Maze. It was relatively cheap, not much more than I would have paid for shipping. It is also part of a system of cat toys that all link together, but I just bought the one piece.

It is designed to stimulate your cats while slowing down their ability to eat treats too quickly. I had another toy that did the same thing, but through a different method. It was called Friskies Wobbert Cat Toy Pull and Play. Our cats liked it, and I wrote a post about it here, but it worked best with the Friskies Party Mix. After putting in a healthier treat, like Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw, they mostly ignored it, even though they love the freeze-dried treat by itself. I don’t know. Perhaps that treat has a more subtle smell.

When it arrived, everybody was interested in it before I even opened the box, especially Frankie.

Cat Frankie with Catit Senses Treat Maze

It needed some assembly, but it was designed with men in mind. It was easy enough to figure out without reading the directions.

Catit Senses Treat Maze pieces

Catit Senses Treat Maze assembled.

I had a bag of Instinct Raw Boost Mixers that I put in the top. Not surprisingly, our smartest cat, Chris, was the first one to figure out how it worked, but Floki, our resident kitten pig,  was the one most determined to get the treats out. Below is the first video I took after putting it together and adding treats. think it was pretty successful, even though it didn’t capture the full attention of all our cats. In later videos, which I haven’t processed yet, Puck becomes interested in it. Frankie showed interest at first, but gave up after a minute or two.  He has not shown much interest after that, but I ran out of treats before giving him a chance to figure it out, so maybe he will like it in the future.

What do you think? Does anybody have this or something like it? How do your cats like it?

Our Cats Have a New Favorite Spot

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Last weekend we bought a kitchen utility cart and now it is the favorite spot for all our cat’s. Once the novelty wears off the appeal of it will probably die down, but now, even after a week, it is still popular. I just peeked around the corner to see Frankie sleeping on it.

Cats on kitchen utility cart

Ok Puck,we have to defend our newly acquired territory from would-be invaders.

Cats on kitchen utility cart

Here’s one now. Just  pretend you don’t see him.

Cats on kitchen utility cart

And take up as much space as possible.

Cats on kitchen utility cart

Puck! I meant space up here!

Cats on kitchen utility cart

Sorry Floki. This spot is for adults only.

Cats on kitchen utility cart

Ok, you can stay, but first you must go through an initiation.

Cats on kitchen utility cart

Floki! Who did you tell about this?

Cats on kitchen utility cart

If you want to be up here, Frankie, you have to go through an initiation too.

Cats on kitchen utility cart

Whack! Now you are in the club.

 

cats sleeping on kitchen utility cart

Defending my space is exhausting.

One week later…

20161119_1504102.jpg.jpg

And the Winners are… The Shelter Cats

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A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Ellen of the blog 15 and Meowing. She said we won the prize in their Halloween giveaway, The prizes were supposed to be a catnip mat, a catnip ghost, a magnet and a button skull but when I asked that she send the prize to Chris’s old shelter, Sav-R-Cats, in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, Ellen decided to make more catnip toys, 20 in all, so the cats at the shelter could enjoy them. Isn’t she wonderful?

I got the following pictures from Shirley, the shelter manager at Sav-R-Cats, and it looks like the prizes were a hit.

cats with toys at sav-r-cats cat shelter cats with toys at sav-r-cats cat shelter cats with toys at sav-r-cats cat shelter

I’m grateful to Ellen and her crew and happy that these homeless cats have something to brighten their days a little. I know that they are well taken care of there, but I still hope all will find a loving home soon.

Tickets for the Final Four Cat Fight Tournament are Still Available

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Sometimes it seems like all our cats are involved in a fighting competition. I feel like I want to sell tickets to the events but I can’t seem to get them to give me a schedule of events and I often can’t tell if they are just sparring or if a real fight event is happening. Chris and Frankie had a real fight event this morning but I didn’t know it was scheduled or I would have had a film crew ready. I did have to ring the bell and send them to their respective corners.

This fight was from last week. I didn’t realize it, but our cats have developed a modified tag team event.

Chris and Floki are fighting now. Get your tickets before it’s too late and the tournament is over.

Photo Friday: Best Friends

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In spite of the fact that Chris dominates Puck as the self-appointed alpha male, he really cares for him. You saw it in the last post and here is another example of the two of them hanging out as best buddies. I took this picture last night in low light with no flash so please forgive the less than perfect quality. I’m actually surprised it came out as good as it did.

Cats Chris and Puck lying together

Adventures in Cat-Sitting

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Bad Cat Chris on chairMy wife and I went away over the weekend for our seventeenth anniversary and our wonderful friend and cat-sitter, Lynn, stopped by twice a day to take care of our cats. She is good because she spends a little time playing with them and she also sends us pictures as well.

Our two gold cats, Chris and Frankie, are never shy around strangers. Even though Lynn is not a stranger, she is also not a common person in our house.

Chris loves everyone. Darth Vader could walk through the door and Chris would want to greet him.

Frankie is almost like Chris. He had no problem rolling on his back to show Lynn his belly.

cat Frankie looking cute

Puck is our shyest cat but he knows Lynn pretty good and had no problem leaving poop on the floor for her to clean up… twice. Puck also cannot get on the china cabinet without first jumping on my shoulders or Rose’s. He has us trained to know when he wants to get up there. He does not have lynn trained so it came as a surprise to her when she bent over to pick up the water bowl and Puck used her as a springboard. I would guess he is comfortable with her.

Cat Puck on cabinet

Floki has met Lynn but he is less familiar with her and hid in the bedroom on her first visit. He did eventually come out because, after all, there are no food bowls in the bedroom.

Our cat Floki

Your turn. I’d love to hear about your pet-sitter.

Cat’s Guide to Getting Outside

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If any cats out there want to know how to get outside, just do what Frankie does and relentlessly annoy the hell out of anyone with opposable thumbs until they can’t take it anymore and take you for a walk. Here is an example of what I am talking about.

This video was taken yesterday. My wife had to hold Chris to keep him from running out the door because it is too difficult to watch Chris while I am walking Frankie.

Here in Florida we have a type of wild grass, that is essentially a weed, that produces seeds, called sandspurs, in the fall that are round and covered with sharp spikes. They are especially bad in my neighborhood. We were outside for about ten minutes before Frankie stepped on one of these sandspurs.

This has happened a few times before but this was the worst. We were actually on the sidewalk when he got one of these nasty things in his paw. He cried and immediately tried to remove it using his mouth. That worked but now it was stuck in his mouth. I tried to help but he was freaking out at that point so I decided to pick him up and take him home in hopes that Rose could get it out while I held him. Fortunately, it was out by the time I reached home and, of course, Chris ran out when we came in.

I was planning on letting him out next so I went outside to watch him. He was so happy to be outside but, unlike Frankie, he was content to eat grass and roll around on the driveway.

bad cat chris outside 20161002_103625

Cats are Clumsy

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Cats have a reputation for being very graceful but in reality, they can be quite clumsy. They are graceful under certain circumstances. For example, they can walk across a display full of porcelain collectibles and leave them all undisturbed. Yes, they are graceful walkers, but what about running and jumping?

Running, and especially jumping, is where they all turn into a cat version of Inspector Clouseau. I don’t know why, maybe nature didn’t prepare them for indoor living, but every time one of our cats jumps on something I hold my breath while I wait to see if something, or someone, falls over. All of our cats have fallen, knocked something over or slid into something but our most clumsy cat has to be Puck.

cat puck

Who? Me?

scratch from catOne example happened Friday morning. I was sitting at the computer when Puck jumped onto my lap, stepped onto the desk and then jumped to get on top of our laser printer. He missed, and grabbed onto whatever he could to keep from falling. That happened to be me. I supposed I could have backed away and saved myself but I hung in there to save my dear, little klutz.

I ended up with a large scratch on my arm, two scratches on my side and a puncture at the edge of my fingernail. In addition, he hurt an already sore shoulder and I spilled coffee on myself.

That was just one example. It seems whenever a wound from one clumsy cat incedent heals, I end up with another one.

We are not the only household with clumsy cats. Shortly after I started writing this post yesterday evening, I saved it to eat dinner and watch a movie with my wife. She did not know what I was writing about but relayed a story to me after the movie was over. She said her friend’s cat tried to jump on a cabinet and missed. He ended up breaking his femur and now she is faced with a $1500 vet bill.

Okay, it’s your turn. Tell me about your clumsy cats.

The New Computer… Box

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Hey Chris! Check out the new cat box.

cat and box
Someone tell dad to take his new computer out of our box.
Cat and computer box

Look, there’s pillows too.

Cat and computer box

This is awesome!

Cat and computer box

 

Frankie, what about this weird thing.

kitten and computer

 

Oh, that’s just Dad’s computer Floki. They can’t send empty boxes for some reason so they put worthless stuff in them to add weight.

Cat and computer box

Thanks for keeping the box warm for me, Frankie.

Cat and computer box

I love these pillows.

Cat and computer box

Dad! You can’t take my cool pillows and give me this lame pillow. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?

Cat and computer box

Frankie! Dad thinks I’m a baby and took my plastic pillows, like I’m gonna suffocate or something. Isn’t that crazy…? Are you up there Frankie? Frankie…?

Cat and computer box