Chris is not the only lizard catcher in the family. Frankie, while not as good as Chris, did manage to snag a lizard on Saturday.
He carried the lizard around for a minute and then set him down so he could have fun catching him again. Unfortunately for Frankie, the lizard was faster the second time.
By the way, that is not blood on Frankie’s paw. It’s some kind of plant matter that he picked up with the lizard, like the leaf hanging from his mouth.
Here is Chris the Lizard Hunter nine years ago yesterday.
Chris was a master lizard catcher in his prime.
For a cat, Frankie seems to miss a lot of things that you would think cats would notice. I mentioned in another post how he missed seeing a stray cat, more than once. I saw the cat and the cat saw us but Frankie was oblivious. It happened again the other day.
We walked past the house that is behind us and one over, which is a corner lot. Frankie was busy sniffing plants and didn’t notice the cat watching us from a screened patio.
There were people inside the patio so I dared not try to get a better photograph.
We continued walking for a block but a dog barking and people talking loudly caused Frankie to reverse direction. We passed the house again with the cat, still unnoticed by Frankie, then walked behind the house toward our house. The cat moved to the back door and continued to watch us. This time we were quite close but Frankie never looked left.
Frankie wasn’t ready to go home so we continued on toward the pool area. Halfway there we came upon a snake. I saw it first. Frankie saw it too but not until several seconds later when the snake decided to retreat.
In Frankie’s defense, he is not completely oblivious to the world around him. He does seem to have an uncanny ability to notice squirrels. He also caught a rabbit once after he escaped. Besides other cats, he’s not very good with reptiles. Frankie could never compete with Chris when it comes to lizard-catching ability. Chris is also the snake catcher in the family.
What do you do when you missed the lizard you were after?
You look around to see if anyone saw you, of course.
I read somewhere that a cat can’t see as well as a human during the day but they can see effectively in light as low as one sixth the level of effective human eyesight. Another thing about a cat’s vision that is supposed to be better than a human’s is their ability to detect even slight motion in their field of view. These are facts that I am not certain about (and I’m too lazy to look them up) but if they are true then Frankie has a problem with his eyesight.
I always knew Frankie was not as good at catching lizards as Chris or Puck. Sure, he did catch a rabbit last year while at the same time evading capture from two people. That was impressive, but rabbits are big and easy to see.
I noticed lately on our walks that he doesn’t seem to notice lizards as well as you would expect. Even the indecent with the snake that IÂ wrote about on Monday’s post made me think he was having trouble seeing it. Below is a video that shows a little of what I am talking about.
Just so you know, that’s not my house. What do you think?
I was looking through my videos and came across one I forgot about from August. Puck either caught a lizard in the litter box or moved it to the litter box so he could play with it without losing it. Whatever the reason, he drew a crowd of spectators.
Sunday I decided to take Frankie for a walk. Â He loves to be outside but since he is an adventurer, I have to bring him out on a leash and harness. That means he doesn’t go out much because I am either too busy, too tired, it’s too hot outside, or I am just plain lazy. These are the same reasons I don’t have a dog.
Frankie likes to travel in a straight line down the sidewalk, like he knows what it is for, pausing occasionally to smell stuff and then moving on.
I let him lead and keep hoping he will eventually start travelling back toward home but he rarely does. I usually have to pick him up and carry him home. I tried to pick him up on this day but he would have none of it and changed direction on his own and headed home.
When we got home he walked up to the front door, instead of the usual side door, and I opened it a bit for him to go inside but he changed his mind. I changed it back for him and picked him up and put him inside.
Chris was at the door wondering why Frankie got to go outside without him so I let Chris out. Chris usually goes out the side door and eats grass next to the driveway so this was a bit of a treat for him.
He started by looking for lizards but found none so he ate a little grass for a while.
Before I knew what was going on, Chris was at the door with a lizard in his mouth. Even with his added girth, he is still the King of the Lizard Catchers.
I tried unsuccessfully to get him to give up his lizard but he is stubborn. Finally I was able to get him to drop it and the lizard ran away, but Chris was off in hot pursuit. He caught him, lost him and followed him into the brush to catch him again. Check out the video of the incident below.
Just so you know, the lizard survived the ordeal.
Chris slipped past me and out the door twice on Sunday. The first time he caught a lizard right away. Even though Chris has gained some weight lately, he is still better at catching lizards, and everything else, than all the other cats we have ever had. When he does catch a lizard, he wants to immediately bring it in the house.
I’m not sure why he has to bring his catch inside but he will just sit at the door with a lizard hanging from his mouth until someone lets him in. That was not going to happen Sunday and I tried to get him to let it go but he was not up for that.
Does anyone else have a cat that has to bring their catch inside?
I knew it wouldn’t be long before Chris and Frankie figured out how to slip out the door in our new home. It happened on Thursday when both escaped on separate occasions.
I don’t worry about Chris because he is mostly interested in eating grass and hunting lizards. I do worry about Frankie because he is an explorer and I fear he will get lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood. We also live in a neighborhood where cats are not allowed outside. I am not sure you can legally allow dogs outside but not cats, even leashed cats, but I would prefer not to draw attention from busybody neighbors.
When Chris got out, I didn’t try to catch him right away because it was clear he was not interested in leaving the area. I probably should have, because before I knew it, he had a lizard in his mouth and was ready to go in. It was a real pain trying to get him to give up the lizard. Three or four times I got it out of his mouth, only to have get away from me and him catch it again.
I recorded the first attempt but had to put the phone down so I had a better chance of saving the lizard, which I eventually did with one slightly shorter tail.
When Frankie got out I was lucky. He was disoriented and while he was trying to figure out which way to run, I grabbed him and put him inside.
We let the cat’s outside for their weekly romp in the backyard. Puck immediately caught a lizard and then brought it in the house. That distracted me long enough for Frankie to run up the palm tree and get on the roof, and again I missed recording it. At least now I know how he did it.
Frankie then led me on a wild goose chase around the neighborhood while Chris was busy investigating our neighbor’s patio. In other words, it was a typical day.
Bad Cat Chris 