stranger | Bad Cat Chris

Puck has always been more timid than Chris or Frankie. Actually, every cat is more timid than Chris but what I am trying to say is that Puck can be a bit of a scardy-cat. He is not as timid as Flash, the brother of Tigger who passed a few months after we adopted Chris, but he does tend to run away from strangers while Chris, and sometimes Frankie, will go towards them.

My stepson, Nick, came to visit for a week over the Christmas holiday and Puck refused to come out of our bedroom while he was in the house. We had to put a litter box in our room along with food and water because we were worried he would not eat or drink or that he would do his business on our bedroom floor.

Unfortunately, Rose has a nose like a bloodhound and refused to sleep with the litter box in our room so I had to keep moving it back and forth everyday.

I felt bad for Puck because his entire day was spent on our bed or under it. Sometimes Chris would come in to keep him company.

After Nick left, it was such a relief to see Puck out and about and enjoying life again. The strange thing is, Rose’s dad and his wife came for a couple of days at Thanksgiving and Puck came out to visit with them. Also, my best friend, Rick, came here on New Year’s Eve and Puck not only came out while he was here, he actually got on Rick’s chair with him, and he has never seen Rick before.

Clearly, there was something about Nick that made Puck nervous. Perhaps Nick teased him last year when he was here. I don’t know. Does anyone else have a pet that is nervous around a particular person?

Today I had the day off from work and we had two contractors scheduled for the same time. The plumber arrived first and all three cats were on the patio at the same time so I just slipped the cover on the cat door so they couldn’t come inside. Chris was actually the good cat this time while Frankie and Puck were desperate to come inside.

I was a little surprised Puck was desperate to get inside a house with a stranger in it but I understood that under the bed was where he was comfortable riding out the “stranger” storm. Of course, getting to the bed meant going right past the big, bad plumber. Frankie didn’t surprise me. He is a pain when he wants to go out and a pain when he wants to come in.

I thought the desperation in both cats was worth getting on video so I quickly opened the slider, stepped out and closed it again. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough and Puck slipped past me and into the house, bumping his head on the door as he went in. I felt bad about that but it didn’t slow him down in his effort to get UTB.

I did manage to capture Frankie’s desperate attempt to get in the house while Chris lied on the ground and watched his craziness.

As soon as the plumber left I let them back in the house. Five minutes later, two guys showed up to replace our living room window, which the lawn guy chipped several months ago. Puck was still under the bed so I picked up Chris and Frankie and put them in the bedroom and shut the door. After about fifteen minutes of loud banging, they were done and life was back to normal.

What do you do with your pets when a stranger comes to your house?