As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Frankie and I came across a snake on our walk the other day. Frankie didn’t notice it until it was slithering away. The next day, we saw another snake. This time Frankie noticed it about the same time I did. Unlike the last snake we saw, this one stood its ground. It just stared at us while we stared back at it.
It seemed like Frankie was preparing to attack so I picked him up and put him back down about twenty feet away. That was the end of that.
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.
Frankie came across a snake during our walk last week. He seemed only moderately interested in it as if he couldn’t decide if the little fellow was worth the effort. His behavior was not very cat-like since most cats would go out of their way to catch the smallest insect. Well, at least our cats would.
Chris and Frankie have both been increasingly annoying lately in their attempts to get one of us to let them outside. Frankie is the vocal one. He will make lots of noise while sitting and staring at the door. Chris is the sneaky one. Every time I go outside I check to make sure there is no cat around and then make a quick dash out the door. More often than you could imagine, before I get a chance to close the door, Chris is already outside.
At least I don’t have to worry too much about Chris running off and often I will let him stay out for a few minutes before I bring him in. He mostly just eats grass or lies on the driveway. If I leave him out too long he will start to wander off and then I know it is time to bring him in.
Frankie I have to worry about. If he escapes it is very difficult to catch him. He tends to travel far from home and I worry if I ever lose track of him he might not remember how to get home. So to allow Frankie to have some outside time and also to let him get used to the neighborhood, I have been trying to take him for a walk more often lately.
These walks are always an adventure. Granted, a good part of the time spent outside is Frankie standing around smelling bushes.
Some of the walk is a bit boring for me, as you can see from the video, but there is always some excitement, such as Frankie trying to run after a bunny or a lizard. On our last walk we had both of those plus a snake, which required great effort to keep him from catching.
One time we even encountered a big dog off his leash.
The camera just stopped recording at that point but everything turned out fine. The dog owner apologized and said the dog was best friends with a cat at home. Even so, I hope he keeps him on a leash from now on.
The main problem I have with taking Frankie out is that the more he goes out the more he wants to go out. At least, that used to be the main problem. A new, bigger problem appeared the other day.
On Friday Rose noticed what she thought was an eye booger on Frankie but when she removed it she discovered it was a flea. That led to DEFCON 5 in our house and we had to buy flea medication for all the cats, which I don’t like because it is unhealthy for them, but Rose thinks my all natural methods are a bit crazy at times and I knew I wouldn’t win this round with fleas in the house. We bought a six-pack of Advantage II for cats at PetSmart which was expensive, about $76 before tax. I then discovered it on Amazon for much less but we needed it right away.
Now Rose insists that Frankie and Chris never go out again. I don’t agree with that but for now Frankie is stuck inside. Chris has already been out this morning but only because he is better than Frankie at escaping.
Yesterday evening Chris comes shooting through the cat door from our screened-in patio. Puck came in close behind and they were both playing with something under our dining room table. Rose notice what it was and started yelling, “He’s got a snake! He’s got a snake! Get it! Get it out of the house!”
It was a small snake, perhaps nine or ten inches long, and it was on the ground trying to escape but Chris and Puck had it corralled. I tried to grab it, but I wanted to pick it up near the head so it wouldn’t bite me. That slight hesitation gave Chris enough time to pick it up and run with it. It then became a game of keep-away.
I quickly got tired of the game and picked up Chris, with the snake in his mouth, and carried him onto the patio. I then held him down near the outside door until he dropped the snake. When he did, I pushed the snake under the door to the outside. Done… at least that is what I thought.
As soon as I let Chris go he ran to the door, reached as far under it as he could, and pulled the snake back inside. Bad cat! I had to go through it again. This time I held Chris down until he dropped it and then left the snake alone and put Chris in the house. I then picked up the snake, which was no longer moving, and threw it outside. If Rose wasn’t there I might have just let him eat it so the lost life would not be wasted.
Later I wondered why he always has to bring his catch into the house. Rose said he is giving us a gift. I am well aware of cats bringing dead animals to their owners as gifts, but when they bring it in and then play keep-away, it is not a gift.
Bad Cat Chris 