I found this rather cute photo of Chris, Tigger and Abbey napping together eight years ago today in 2012.
Of course, it didn’t start out like that.
Chris gradually worked his way into a comfortable third wheel.
Here is Frankie on a recent walk. During our walks, he often takes a time out for some rest and relaxation.
The SPCA announced recently that they were allowing the volunteers to come back. I took that opportunity to trade my 4-7 shift on Thursdays for a 1-4 shift on Fridays. This means that I will be volunteering at the same time I am on call at the Red Cross but I have gone on two calls in six months so I thoght it would be no problem.
When I walked into the cat room I noticed that all of the pods were empty, at least all that I could see.
I thought maybe they moved the cats and didn’t tell me but as I continued I saw a pod with four cats in it. I was pleasantly surprised to find seven of the eight cat pods empty. The next room has the smaller cages where cats are kept in isolation, either because they are recovering from surgery, they have a special diet, or the don’t play well with others.
There were four cats in that room, including a very friendly black cat named Sassy who had a skin condition from a flea allergy. I took her photo but it is too blurry to post.
There were also six kittens in the room in three separate cages, probably separated by litter. There were two black kittens that I failed to get pictures of. There was also a single gold and white kitten who was curious but shy.
Then there was three kittens together in one cage, a ginger boy and two females including one tabby and one tortie.
The ginger kitten was the most outgoing of the three and would come down from the shelf for attention.
The four cats inside the pod were pretty shy except for a white and gold cat named Max.
When Max wasn’t busy catching some rays he was busy looking for attention
While I was there, a man and his two boys came in shortly before a woman. All of them decided they wanted to adopt the ginger kitten but the woman recognized that the man was first and let him take the kitten. Perhaps if he didn’t have two young boys who wanted the kitten, he might have let her have him. Unfortunately, the woman left without a cat.
Another woman, who had been in earlier, decided to adopt an eight year old male Siamese cat named Sage. He was hiding under their homemade cat tree so I had to pull him out and put him in a carrier. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it then but today he is living the good life.
While I was there I spoke with someone about doing animal transports. It is an on call position that I know almost nothing about yet but she did ask if I would be comfortable handling wildlife and mentioned birds of prey and a few others that I don’t remember. My guess is these are animals that are injured and need medical attention but I don’t know. I have an appointment to meet with her at 7:00 am this morning where I will learn more about the job. I think it will be interesting.
Here is a photo from ten years ago of Chris and Tigger. It was taken when we lived in Myrtle Beach on June 28, 2010. It shows Chris was as touchy-feely back then as he is today.
My wife was promoted to property manager in 2009 and transferred to Myrtle Beach to run a property there. We got a third-floor apartment at the back of the property. If I remember correctly she wanted to be out of the way so most residents wouldnt know where we lived.
I rigged screening around the balcony railing with double-sided tape so the cats could go outside without the temptation to jump down. I also attached screening to long pieces of wood and hung them from the top of the balcony so the cats couldn’t jump onto the railing and possibly hurt themselves by falling off. That screening was then rolled up when not in use so nobody would notice it was there.
All of these photos were taken almost ten years ago on June 21, 2010 using a digital camera that was outdated even for the time, so forgive the quality.
The pool noodles were added after we adopted Chris because he was able to squeeze his body under the railing and jump down from the third floor. (see here).
So what do you think of our little trip to the past?
Chris is very touchy-feely. He always has to be touching someone. This photo was taken in low light so the technical quality is not great but I think it is still worth sharing.
Who else has touchy-feely pets?
Chris has a lot of trouble with his ears. He probably doesn’t want Floki to have the same problems so he makes sure they are clean.
It has been over two months since the local SPCA told all of us volunteers to stay home. They are still taking care of and adopting pets but they are doing it with just their paid staff. That means the cats and dogs are still finding homes but they have fewer people around to pay attention to them while they are there.
While I was volunteering, I took photos of some of the cats almost every time I was there and I thought this would be a good time to share some of the ones from this year. The last time I was there was March 19th, over two months ago, so I’m sure all of these kitties have found homes by now. At least I hope so. I also have forgotten all of their names except Grampa Hulu who was unusual because he was a male tortie.
Hopefully they will be letting us volunteers come back pretty soon.
Frankie and I went for a nice walk the other day. The first thing Frankie needed to do was get a good sniff on a nearby car.
The cat that he met on a previous walk may have left him a message there.
It was a warm day so we needed to stop in the shade for a while.
Then it was on to the traditional roll in the dirt.
And then more rolling in the dirt.
Finally we stopped to rest on some nice, comfortable concrete.
On a side note, I forgot to mention that Frankie’s paw improved on it’s own after he hurt it a couple of weeks ago. By the next day he was walking fine. I still see him holding it up in the air sometimes though. I don’t know if it bothers him or if that is just something he does. I will have to watch him more closely.
It just occurred to me that today is Chris’s birthday. I should have had a big, elaborate post planned for his birthday but instead all I have is a quickly thrown together post with a photo of Chris on top of our kitchen cabinets on his fourth birthday, which I have never posted before to my knowledge.
We don’t know exactly when Chris was born but since he was about six months old when we adopted him I just celebrate his birthday six months before his gotcha day. I will have to make sure he gets plenty of Stella and Chewy’s today for a treat.
