cats (±), winter
Well, Kitty Gras has begun. We got five of six indoors as predicted. Shemp inexplicably keeps showing interest in leaving and I already had to retrieve him once -- I'm AMAZED he didn't take one look outside at the hail and wind and go "no, fuck this."
Ceejay is still MIA. :( We are not surprised by this, but I was hoping to at least find him either in the admittedly kinda half-assed shelter we constructed or in the fleece blanket we shoved through the hole that leads into the abandoned basement where all six of them tend to roost.
We left out some food and a prayer to Bast for his safety. I really really hope he's absent because he's a wily little urban shaman and already has much better digs than ours figured out.
I suppose just one night of FREEZE isn't likely to be instantly lethal to a cat with a full winter coat, anyhow, and we'll just check him for frostbite and whatnot when it warms up tomorrow, in the very much desired event that he shows up. But I'm still gonna worry.
Meanwhile, the other five have been... calm-ish? We're not exactly looking forwards to 24 hours of five cats, but so far they've at least been ~75% cooperative and 100% cute.
re: cats (±), winter
@zebratron2084 if it helps, it's gotten down to about -20F here and the neighborhood short-haired rambler is still ramblin'. my in-laws' barn cat, also short-haired, spends a lot of time outside at the coldest times of year (his choice – they love the lil guy and would let him spend the winter indoors if he wanted). and there's a farm youtuber I watch in northern vermont whose barn cats live outside permanently. they're tough critters!
re: cats (±), winter
@Sig That is very reassuring! And CJ is a bit of a poodge so he at least has some body fat to keep him warm plus a pretty decent coat... and Mysterious Cat Knowledge that probably includes a map of hidden local warm spots we can't even dream of.
cats (±), winter
@zebratron2084 best of luck, also kitty! 💙💙💙