Day 1069: Indoor cats?

So, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, J. had a very impressive list of things he wanted to do to his house before moving Azalyn and Ambrose inside. It turned out he could be flexible. The weather forecast was calling for some very cold nights this week, starting tomorrow – like, -8°C – and he agreed that we should consider that an emergency and cut some corners. Most of our outdoor cats would do perfectly well with weather that cold. They’d just curl up together in the stacked baskets on my porch, as they do for cold weather generally. Ambrose, however, has very long fur and tends to get soppy wet, and then he doesn’t curl up with the others, so I was worried about him especially.

So yesterday we started planning, and then this afternoon we had D. come help J. carry a big bookcase upstairs, and I moved a whole bunch of Magic card stacks to it, which cleared off the top of a big sideboard in the livingroom. I got rather tired going up and down the stairs so much; I’m sure it was very good for me! We put away a lot of other stuff, too, but then we couldn’t find Ambrose. I kept checking for him every half hour or so. Finally, around 10:40 p.m., I found him outside and we brought them both in. First I sat with them in the upstairs bathroom, so they’d be familiar with the room where their litterboxes are. Then we let them explore the house to try to settle in.

Azalyn was pretty stressed about the whole thing, whereas Ambrose was more chill. Azalyn kept trying to find a door she could use to go outside, then eventually gave up and found a comfortable hiding spot, though she didn’t mind when I’d approach her to pet her. Ambrose, on the other hand, was very happy to purr and relax whenever we’d pet him, and he was also quite interested in various reflective surfaces – the bathroom mirror, a particular glass poster frame, etc. J’s sleeping downstairs to keep them company, and I hope the cats are more relaxed by morning.