You know how you can just tell when someone is staring at you? There we were, just minding our own business, when we felt eyes on us. I looked up into a pair of pleading yellow ones.
"Let me in?" Sunny meowed.
We can't let Sunny in the house anymore, because he causes trouble with Baby. Now Baby can hiss with the best of 'em, but she has no claws with which to defend herself. We've seen evidence of prior run-ins on her nose, so we have to keep the kids apart.Not to worry about Sunny, though. He likes being in the garage and we give him plenty of scritches and petting out there. In the summer, he's a regular inhabitant of our laps as we relax in the yard.
I really miss the company of the outside cats during the winter. They seem to do fine, acquiring gorgeous thick coats to keep them warm. They are all kept in either the pool house or the garage during the night and of course, food and water bowls are replenished daily.
They probably long for spring, too.
"Bejeweled"
11 comments:
I would find it difficult to resist those beautiful eyes pleading to come in. What a dilemma.
My friend has an outdoor cat that has a heated house. They found a possum in it the other day. Ha...
That would of freaked me out looking up & seeing that cat! lol Our cat goes in & out all day long. :)
Awww, look at your kitty. Poor thing.If they would only play fair.
Kylee, our last cat lived outside for 18 years. It never came inside except that it could come and go through a cat door to the screened patio. That one probably would have died if he couldn't be outside. We are petless now... that way we can get up and go whenever we want to... except for minding the garden of course which is more demanding than that cat ever was. HA!
Lisa ~ Oh believe me, I'm quite lenient when it comes to the cats coming in, with a couple of exceptions (Boo and Jack, both of whom spray). I just have to watch closely to help avoid altercations.
perennialgardener ~ It did kind of scare me at first, until I realized it was one of the cats. They are always up there. They climb up the pergola.
In the summer, more cats are allowed to come and go, inside and out (although the inside ones aren't allowed out). In the winter, I hate to have them go from one temperature extreme to another for very long.
flowergardengirl ~ I know. I've been able to quell some jealousy by petting two of them at the same time. I talk to them quietly, calling each by name and in 100% of the cases, it has avoided a confrontation. They actually will stand next to each other as long as I keep petting each one and talking in soothing tones to them. Just call me the cat whisperer! LOL!
Meems ~ That is a very long time to be an outside cat and not get hit on the road. That's my biggest fear with the outies. And I know what you mean - some cats just would not be happy as inside cats and then you have ones like Lola, who doesn't care to be out at all and is getting to be quite obese! I made her go out of the garage outside today and she just sat on the doorstep and cried. I couldn't stand it so I brought her in again. I'm positive she was a house cat wherever it was she came from.
Our neighbor is great about taking care of our cats if we have to be gone for more than a couple of days. He loves them, but his wife doesn't care for cats, so he loves on ours. :-)
I know what you mean about the garden being demanding, too! And don't think I'm not worried about leaving all my houseplants in Romie's care when I'm gone in February! LOL! (Actually, before I started gardening and we only had a few houseplants, he was in charge of watering them because I would always kill them. They looked fabulous while in his care! His strategy? Water them once a week, whether they need it or not. LOL)
I wonder, will she let you know if she's too cold?
Had one cat that went outdoors...can't remember how much cold she could tolerate.
Best of luck.
Grin, I know that feeling all too well, Kylee. ;-) Love the pic of Sunny looking through the window. His eyes are certainly deafening me with the *I want to come inside look*. Some cats have a silent miaow all cats have the silent scream in their eyes when they want something.
I let Jeeves inside on New Year's Eve as he was so scared of the fireworks and he slept on my bed next to me all night long, happily purring away.
When you got Baby was she already declawed?
A Blissful 2009 to you and yours, Kylee!
It must have been hard not letting Sunny in, but it sounds as if life is good for them outdoors. I wish I had a cat ...
Patsi ~He has access to the pool house during the day, and there are plenty of dense shrubs where he can get warmer, if he needs to. He's used to being outside. This is his second winter.
Our inside cats don't go out at all, not even in the summer. Unless they escape, of course, and that does happen now and then. They aren't out for long though. I think it's just too overwhelming to them!
Yolanda Elizabet ~ Honestly? I'm not sure I could live very long with all nine of them in the house at the same time anyway. This winter, we are up from our usual two house cats (Simon and Baby) with the addition of Jilly. Last year, Jilly was outside for the winter, but over time, she has let it be known that she would much rather be a house cat than an inside cat, so we have just let her stay in. I think though, that when spring comes, she will be going back outside. There are some minor issues with her that led to that decision.
Baby was the tiniest of the litter we rescued from the field in 2004. When we decided to make her an inside cat, we also decided to have her declawed (all four paws). Simon has only had his front claws removed, which I regret. I wish we'd done all four.
I know some feel that it's cruel, but we have not found it to be detrimental to the cats at all. Mimi, our cat we had for 16 years was also declawed (all four) and believe me, she never missed them, as far as we could tell.
Kate ~ It's always hard to not let them in when they let it be known they'd like to be in. Oh, you DO need a cat, Kate! I'm sure there will be lots of kittens available in just a couple short months!
Oh, now I want to pet the kitty! My DH doesn't do cats, but I love them anyway. I had fun petting that one at the garden center. You were right, the scabiosa seeds I picked up are called Summer Berries. The colors looked so pretty! Maybe I should start them indoors over the winter so they'll have a head start. Maybe then I'll get blooms out of them. Hopefully yours will be back next season, full of flowers. I hope the same thing for the black hollyhocks I started from seed. No blooms this year, but they did sprout up into small plants. Hope to get some great black flowers out of them this year.
Robin ~ Too bad about your husband not liking cats, because every garden needs a cat!
Guess what I did today while at Lowe's making a return? They had their seeds and I looked through them. I got three packets and one of them was 'Summer Berries'! I'm going to try again this year.
I had black hollyhocks this year. I hope some reseeded enough before fall that I'll have more blooms this next year. With them being biennials, you never know! You should have some though!
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