Day 15 - Outdoors

This pile of blanket sits right outside our front door all winter to accomodate our cat, Gypsy. Buried under it is the two-holed, carpet-covered cat tower I bought when we made the cats permanent outside residents two years ago. Gypsy has always occupied the bottom level. I assume Jewel used the top hole when it was really cold, but I mostly saw her lying on top of it.

Over the summer, we tried to relocate it to the back porch, but Gypsy was having none of it. She ignored it all summer, preferring to sleep in the flower pot on the front porch instead. Apparently, she is a front porch cat. It makes sense; that's where we come and go the most and she likes to be with us. When it started getting cold this year, I decided to bring the cat tower back to the front porch because I was worried about her and I couldn't get her to go in it on the back porch. I put it right back where it was before and put a clean towel in her hole. That wasn't enough. So I added one of those pocket hand warmers that stays warm for 10 hours and some Kitten Cookies (she is nuts for Kitten Cookies) to coax her in. That did the trick. Since then, she either lies on top or hides in her hole.

She usually greets me at the door in the mornings to beg for breakfast when I let the dog out to potty,  but one morning this week, I didn't see her at all. It had gotten cold enough to frost, so I suspected she just hadn't come out of her warm hidey-hole yet. That's nothing short of a miracle since Georgia's 70 lb. Lab self barrels off the porch like she's been shot out of a cannon and knocks into the cat tower every time, sending Gypsy running out to see what the heck just happened. Maybe Georgia was more subdued by the cold this particular morning, too, because when I bent down to peek inside, Gypsy poked her little head out to squint and purr at me.

 

I regularly have to squelch the guilt of making her live outside, even though I know she can't live in the house because of Ella's allergies, and even though I'm so over the whole litter box situation I'll probably never have another indoor cat. But still, she has sweet gypsy eyes and she greets us so enthusiastically and she even loves the dog now that Jewel E. is gone.  Winter is the hardest because we aren't outside as much, but we try to love on her as we come and go, and I do let her come in the house to make a round through all the rooms occasionally. I think she might still be looking for Jewel because she never stays inside very long - just tours the house and goes out again.

She's my sweet, little, outdoor, Gypsy-cat.