I have discovered, or rediscovered, that I have a ton of photos of Chris inserting himself between Abbey and Tigger. Here they are on January 14, 2011.
The next one is a few minutes later.
This is my 1500th post on this blog. I know it is not that many considering I have been doing this for over ten and a half years, but it feels like a lot.
Here is Chris on Christmas Eve, 2009. Somehow he got himself wrapped in what looks like a Christmas tablecloth but I have no idea how that happened.
I forgot my Photo Friday post. I made it with less than 2 hours to spare.
Here is Frankie doing the twist.
I was looking through photos and found this one of Frankie from a few weeks ago. Frankie likes to stretch out his long body and doesn’t care that anyone can see him.
He might even be a bit of an exhibitionist.
Read to the end for a free copy of Chris’s book.
It has been thirteen years since Chris came to live with us and I don’t think it is a stretch to say that he changed our lives. I imagine things would be very different if I didn’t need to fill in for someone that day at the Petsmart adoption center where I first saw Chris. For one thing, I probably would not be blogging today and would have missed out on knowing so many great people . . . and pets.
I think this is a good time to walk down memory lane.
I believe this is the first photo I have of Chris. It was taken with the low-quality camera that was on my non-smartphone at the time. I had met Chris a few times before while volunteering at the shelter and thought he would make a good candidate for adoption. I even spoke to my wife about him. Another volunteer snapped this photo with my phone and I texted it to my wife, who was out of town on a business trip. I wrote, “Can we keep him?”
When Rose first came to see him he did not disappoint.
After we got him home he continued his affection.
But first, there was a home to explore. Here he is moments after we arrived home and I opened his carrier.
He basically took over the house and our other cats just let him. In return, Chris was very affectionate to the other cats, weather they liked it or not.
He even influenced others to misbehave.
But he has always been the glue that holds the group together.
I will leave you with a “Best of Bad Cat Chris” video that I put together about seven years ago.
Many of you know I wrote an ebook about Chris over nine years ago. Much of it was taken from this blog and tells the story of our early struggles with raising a bad cat. I have made the book free until the end of the day Wednesday. To get your free kindle ebook, click here.
All our cats love boxes but Frankie, above all, can’t resist jumping inside a new box, often without looking at what is inside first.
Frankie and Chris go through phases of liking and not liking each other. Here they are during the liking phase.
I think Frankie mostly tolerates Chris and his annoying behavior more than he actually likes him but when he washes Chris it looks like there is a little liking going on.
I took Frankie for a walk on Saturday and we stayed relatively close to home this time. Frankie spent a lot of time doing things other than walking.
After hanging out by the pool area we spent some time relaxing at the picnic area. By that I mean napping.
Eventually we made our way back home but when I opened the door Frankie didn’t want to go inside so I had to pick him up and put him in the house. When I did that, Chris was at the door waiting to go out but we needed to leave for a wedding, so Chris didn’t get his turn. I felt really bad about that.
My stepson, Nick, flew in yesterday with his girlfriend and the four of us are going on vacation together this week. I posted recently about how Puck was nervous around Nick, but not so with Chris.
Chris loves everyone and he especially loves to be hugged, which is not a typical cat behavior. Of course, Chris is not a typical cat.
Here is Abbey, Tigger, and Chris from almost eleven years ago on September 11, 2011. I couldn’t help but think of that Sesame Street song when I saw this.
Bad Cat Chris 