Tag Archives: ginger

Wrong House, Frankie

23 Replies

My wife is looking for a housekeeper so our next door neighbor, April, recommended somebody that she knows. April is at our house quite often and she watches our cats when we go away sometimes, so our cats are very familiar with her. Of course, when April came over to introduce her friend to Rose, Frankie ran out the door and escaped.

I don’t have a picture from yesterday but here is Frankie during another escape.

It seems that everything interesting that happens with our cats lately happens while I’m at work. Rose sent me the following text yesterday morning.

A few minutes later I get this one.

When I got home I found out the whole story. Apparently April went back to her house with the lady and must have had her door open because Frankie ran inside her house. I don’t know what happened while he was inside but April then carried Frankie home.

It reminds me a lot of what happened when Chris was young. This might be my favorite story about Chris. You can read it here.

Our Fearless Cat

26 Replies

Chris has always been an unusual cat, which is why I thought he would be a good subject for a blog. One thing that makes Chris different from most cats is his fearlessness. You may remember posts about his indifference to the vacuum, or the post about him watching fireworks with us.

Last week my wife told me about something that happened while I was at work. She said one of those bucket trucks pulled up and a man got in the bucket and proceeded to trim the palm tree next to our house.

The noise freaked out Floki and Frankie, who came running into the house from the Florida room. They were both very nervous as they listened to the noise coming from outside. But Rose did not see Chris so she got up to check on him and was surprised by what she saw.

Chris was sitting on top of his crate, less than ten feet from the tree, watching the man trim the palm fronds.

If someone else has a cat like Chris, I would love to hear about it.

Lazy Cat Chris

25 Replies

Chris is no longer the adventurous, trouble seeking cat he used to be. Now he just causes trouble whenever he can do so with little to no effort. For example, I noticed recently one of the food bowls is often turned over on its side. I know Chris was doing it but never actually caught him in the act. He has become so lazy that he can’t even stand up to eat his food. He tips the bowl over and eats while lying down.

While I was at work yesterday my wife sent me the following photos from the scene of the crime, where the culprit was caught on camera.

I guess I need to put up a sign that says, “No tipping, please.”

Keeping the Ear Clean

22 Replies

It seems like Chris has a perpetual ear infection due to his overabundance of ear pollyps. It was in both ears but now it is only in his left ear. I got a different medicine from the vet and have been putting it in his ear pretty regularly but we have been inconsistent when it comes to cleaning his ears. Perhaps because putting in the medicine is easy but cleaning his ears involves a lot of struggling and frustration. Fortunately, Floki has taken over the ear cleaning duties and he does a great job with far less struggling from Chris.

Floki even knows it is his left ear that needs cleaning.

Frankie Gets Burned

26 Replies

Yesterday morning, I just finished boiling water for the tea I was going to use in my homemade kombucha. I moved the pan off the burner and turned to open the tea bags when I heard a noise behind me. The thought of Frankie jumping on the stove entered my mind and I immediately turned around to see Frankie walking away, holding one paw up as if he was in pain. I tried to look at his paw but he ran away and hid in the cat tree box.

I didn’t want to traumatize him more by pulling him out so I waited. After five minutes he was out so I picked him up and asked Rose to check his paws while I held him. Fortunately, she didn’t see anything wrong but I thought a burn might show up later so I made a note in my head to check him that evening.

When I put him down he went out to the dining room and jumped on the table. There he held his paw up like there was a problem.

Rose blamed me for allowing Frankie to get on the kitchen counters. I blame Chris because, after years of struggling to keep him off the counters, he wore me down until I gave up trying.

I can’t really blame Chris, though, because I really need to be more forceful about discouraging Frankie from jumping on the counters, especially near the stove. This is the second time this has happened and I don’t want there to be a third. I think I assumed the first time would have been a lesson for him but apparently not.

Yesterday evening Rose checked his paws again and still saw nothing so Frankie got lucky. This time.