A couple of friends of ours from Florida, Nancy and Joe, visited us over the weekend. They recently bought a Winnabego and had taken it on the road. On their return to Florida, we were not too much out of the way so they stopped here for a couple af days.
On Saturday, while we were sitting at the dining room table, Nancy was cold so Rose offered her the blanket that she keeps on the couch. The same blanket that Chris loves to sleep on because it is very soft.
While she was sitting there with the blanket over her lags, Chris tried to reclaim the blanket by lying on her feet.
He actually took a nap there on her feet. I guess she will think next time about who’s blanket she decides to steal.
I was at the supermaket yesterday morning when Rose called me. “Frankie got out!” she said. “And I’m locked out of the house with no shoes on.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m coming home right now.”
I quickly checked out with what I was able to get and went home. When I arived I saw nobody at first but then saw Rose and the pest control guy crossing the street. The guy was here to do an annual termite inspection and Frankie got out when Rose answered the door.
The man was carrying a fishing net and Rose pointed and said “Frankie is under that truck. As soon as we approached, Frankie ran out.
He ended up under a van a couple of houses down so I asked the guy to push at Frankie with his net. I hoped he would come out on my end but he shot out the front and ended up back under the pest control guy’s truck.
From there he went into the neighbors back yard and was about to jump the fence into our yard but changed his mind and skirted past me. After a little more chasing he ended up in front of our house too pooped to care anymore. I held my hand out and he gave it a good sniff while I move in close enough to grab him.
My biggest worry is that he is unfamiliar with the area. I have been lazy and have not taken him for a walk since he seems very content to just hang out on the catio. With one week more here I don’t think I will worry about walkling him here but once we get back to Florida I will have to do that.
Every morning Frankie quickly eats half his food and then tries to convince me to let him out on the catio. The other morning Floki saw him there not paying attention and decided to pounce.
Chris loves getting under the bed covers, which is where he was the other evening when Floki decided to join him.
After I took this photo Floki circled around behind Chris and got under the cover again there. Perhaps he didn’t like to have his photo taken while he was undercover.
My wife and I were on the catio yesterday evening with the cats who were out there much of the day. Frankie, in particular, always wants to be out there.
We talked about what Frankie was going to do after we return to Florida in just over two weeks to our house with no catio. It will surely feel like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
Even here, Frankie has become quite the pain. As we were getting ready to go upstairs last night to go to bed, Frankie was at the door crying to go out. This morning at 6 a.m., after eating only half his breakfast, he was again at the door crying to go out.
All we can do is let them enjoy it while it lasts. I quess I will have to start taking Frankie for a walk again when we return.
The window by my desk overlooks our back yard. From time to time I will see a white cat walk through our yard. I think I saw the same cat in our yard last winter so we must be part of her territory. Yesterday, Frankie and Floki were on the catio and I went out there to check on them. When I did, I noticed their attention fixed on the white cat.
Nobody was howling or hissing or making a fuss. They were just looking at each other.
The last time this happened with another cat it was also a peaceful encounter. I speculated then that it must have been a female because another male would probably have elicited a different response. If I am right, this white cat is probably also a female. If anyone has a reason to confirm or reject my hypothesis, I would like to hear about it.
My wife left for Virgina on Tuesday Morning for a work trip. I thought it would be a good time to set up my security camera so that you can better understand why we have been closing Chris out of the bedroom all these years. The camera only records when it detects movement. Even so, it recorded over 25 minutes of video. I was able to cut it down a little but it is still long. I should have quadrupled the speed during processing but I just now thought of that. I think after a few minutes you will get the idea.
There is a time stamp on the video so you can see what time it was for each disturbance. Chris was actually pretty good and didn’t start with his shenanigans until almost 1:00 a.m. It’s hard to see but he likes digging his claws into my skin which is what is most disturbing.
Saturday night Chris whinned and cryed and scratched at the bedroom door until finally I opened the door and let him in. He was surprisingly good. He did bother me a little but it was not untill almost 6 a.m. before he became unbearable and by then the goal of lasting an entire night in the bedroom had been accomplished.
The above photo is from 2019 but I think it illustrates how difficult Chris can be. The next photo is poor quality but it too shows what a pain Chris can be, literally.
I do not know if Chris sleeping with us will become a habit but I hope he can learn to behave himself.
Sunday night, shortly after we went to bed, Chris started his usual crying and scratching at the bedroom door. This time was worse than usual and he would not stop. After about a half hour I gave up and, over the protests of my wife, let him in.
He actually did pretty well. He bothered me a little but I put him down at my side, away from my face, and he stayed there for a long time. I think he bothered me one more time but I again put him down and he again stayed.
Some time between 3 and 4 a.m. my wife got up and said she couldn’t sleep because of Chris. “He’s behaving,” I said. “How is he keeping you awake?”
“You guys are hogging the sheets and taking up the entire bed,” she said before getting up and going downstairs.
My mind went back to the time before Chris when four to five cats would sleep on the bed next to me and that didn’t cause a problem for Rose. On top of that, I’m pretty sure we had a queen bed back then instead of the king we have now.
Rose came back to bed around 4:45 and about five minutes later Chris started bothering me but this time I could not get him to stop. If it was 5 a.m. I would have considered it too late to go back to sleep and got up. That would have meant that Chris made it through an entire night in our room. Instead, I put him out and closed the door ten minutes shy of the goal.
I managed to sleep almost an additional hour before Chris started scratching and howling at the door. Some day I will get eight hours of sleep. Perhaps when we take our vacation a year from now.
Bad Cat Chris 