Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 10, 2025

What I saw when outside today, cat tracks!

Cats are often described as little …..   with cheap fur coats

I’m pretty sure the snow will cover everything soon enough.

My cat used to ask to be let out the front door. When I opened the door for her, she would look out at all the snow, turn around and go to the back door expecting that it might be summer in the back yard.

Our cats like to look out the window and see the snow

Indoor only cats, they have no idea what it’s like

One morning I went out to clean about 14" of snow from the driveway. One of our cats (a once feral male) came out with me. After I cleaned a path to the road I saw him walking out to the road (very rural area and with the snow very little traffic). He stayed out all day and over night (it got down to -30F). Next morning he was back with a bunch of hay in his fur. I figure he found a near by barn to sleep in.

Cover up? That’s what all that snow is for.

I have two indoor cats, the female calico will sniff at an open door but the male tuxedo tabby is always trying to get out, we have to keep a squirt bottle to go in and out. Haven’t had any snow to test him on that and he will run through the rain to sit under my van and complain.

We got a new puppy (is that redundant? oh, well…) and this is a bad time of year for puppy potty training.

Luddie doesn’t have an indoor facility to use?

Our cats like to stay outside on summer nights. When it gets cold, they will got out for a short while, but they are happy to be confined to the back room while we sleep.

Our youngest cat never “covers”. She is proud of herself, and leaves it out for the world to admire.

Door – (n): A movable barrier that a [cat|dog] wishes to always be on the other side of.

Cats always want to be at the other side of the door. Extreme case of FOMO.

The snow will cover it…until spring.

My cats have no inclination to go outside.

I had outside cats. They had shelter and heated cat beds. But they loved the snow. I did have to shovel a path for them to a spot for them to do their business, LOL!

One of my friends said to me that, as he was walking his dog in the snow at 5:30 one morning, that he thought about my indoor cats. “Scooping a litterbox might not be so bad after all.”

We have always had indoor cats but our one cat got out by accident. We looked all over the neighborhood with no luck. The next day I noticed white fur near a hole under our wood deck. Sure enough she was under the deck but wouldn’t come out. After hours of coaxing my wife had an idea to bring the vacuum cleaner which the cat always ran from onto the deck to get her to come out. Worked immediately, the cat came flying out that hole so fast I was barely able to grab her, lol.

For my two cat box activity increases…measurably…in the winter months.

What! No litter box?

Snow will.

“The Door Into Summer”

I rescued a feral a little over 7 years ago. She was about 6 months old and had not been through a Winter so she had never seen snow. We don’t get it often down here but had 6 inches today. Freyja has a tendency of trying to “jailbreak” any time a door is open so I let her today. She ran full speed out of the house, stopped, turned around to look at me then ran as fast as she could back into the house. I don’t think she likes snow.

We had our grandkids here for Christmas and they love our animals. So much that they decided the cats would love to play in the snow, indoor cats, they escaped. Made it 10 feet in to the yard, realized they were out, and freaked out. I thought it was only wet water that freaked them out so bad.

We are catless in our house.

(Luckily my Teddys and their friends bears have never tried to actually leave the house. They only leave in the house in husband and my imaginations.)