Cats a-questing...

It is so cold out. :/

Last night Vee pawed at the doorwall.  I opened it again, pretty sure I knew what she was saying. Sure enough, :: Let me in, I want the warm! :: was what she was communicating.

Shadowcat now comes indoors too.  She remains wary, and any movement can spook her.  But she got used to the microwave making noises, and has been trying to figure out if she feels safe enough to walk out of the dining room.  She can scent that the kittens have done so, that Vee often sits under the dining room chairs...


Sweetpea remains wary of us ever closing the doorwall, unless it's raining bad, esp. cold rain.

Thus the friendliest cat, the one you'd assume would want to live inside, is not really that interested in doing so.  Sweetie after all accepts most things, being a sanguine cat.

Vee is choleric with cats she isn't related to, a bossypants cat in general.  I believe she considers us humans to be Big Cats, but she knows we're different.  She can get more treats out of me, and pout me into letting her back inside, while Vee knows Allen won't let her sneak/walk past him.  But he'll provide treats.  8)

Shadowcat is the phlegmatic one.  She is the best at pouting.  I also call her Eyeball Cat, since when it's dark you just see these huge eyeballs embiggened at you, pleadingly.


Last night, I felt really bad that Vee wanted to stay inside, and that I couldn't let her.  She's the littlest cat -- or at least the skinniest, though not half as skinny as Shadow used to be!  Vee likes to browse, then do something else, then skitter back to eat.  Then she goes to sit under a chair.

In her mind, I cannot know she's under the table or the chairs.  She's hidden!

Problem is, not only is our basement [and entire house] not catproof, Vee is sure to be the destructo-cat.  She marks All the Things, and feels it imperative to mark them again, because you didn't watch her doing it the last time, right?  Right??


Both Vee and Shadow wanted to explore more yesterday.  When Vee was in by herself, I pointed out that we had to have all three, we couldn't just have one of them live indoors.  It'd be unfair.

Vee was unpersuaded.  She was there!  The floor isn't cold.  The house isn't cold.  She was sitting there.  It was all good.

=wry= These are the cats for whom Allen bought a small doghouse, brand new.  They have never entered it.  Little boogers.  Maybe the cold will change their minds... if they do, I'll put the fluffy little dog bed back in there.

I expect they preferred a tunnel with socks lining the bottom, for soft bedding.  [Like the one under the shed, dug by some beast in the far past, co-opted by the cats.]  How the outdoor felines expect we'd keep anything burrow-like free of the other neighborhood cats or the local wildlife I grok not.


Plus we've half-tamed our squirrels.  I took some ancient trail mix and tossed it outdoors for a few days.  In under a week, the three squirrels who frequent our yard would come when Allen opened the doorwall ["Are there any cats out here that want treats?"].

It still cracks me up that he said, "These squirrels have seen too many Disney cartoons with cats in them, particularly Aristocats."  Yep! they think they're cats too.  GREAT.

They don't know that my Sekrit Plan is to help slow down the squirrels and thus get supper for the cats.  :b  Not that that would stop any of the critters from their own goals, of course.

The little birds around us think they're pets too -- that the cat food is theirs.  I watched a cardinal chase off some sparrows for eating HIS cat food.  I call them all the cats' pet birds.  I doubt the cats will catch the birds themselves, but I don't mind the birds "cleaning" off the steps or digging out stray bits of cat food.  Why not?

(No, I don't want to get a bird feeder.  Clearly I've already got one.)