Our sweet boy has had a good month, with no health issues, but he does puzzle us once in a while. In case you don’t live locally, we had a heat wave here within the past month, and temperatures soared to the upper 90’s for several days. Given his fur coat, you’d think that Thomas would surely have stayed in the air-conditioned comfort of his suite, especially given that he has everything he needs there.
But to our surprise, when we opened up the tunnel that connects his suite and the solarium, he headed into the solarium immediately, and that’s happened almost every day, no matter what the weather is like. It’s true that the solarium floor remains nice and cool, regardless of how hot it gets outside, and there’s always water, a litter box, and comfy bedding out there. But once Thomas does go into the solarium in the heat, all he seems to do is sleep anyhow. Just another mystery of feline behavior, I suppose….
As a proper cat, Thomas understands that every door is a potential source of adventure. Who knows what might lie behind it? This can create a problem when you visit him. When you enter his solarium, there’s no difficulty; he’ll simply meow loudly and canter over to you in expectation that you’ll pet him.
But trying to get out can be another matter. Thomas isn’t always delighted with the notion that you want to leave, and will sometimes squeak pitifully and position himself in front of the door so that you cannot exit without his getting out, as well.
All of the suites and their accompanying solariums have doors that open onto a common hallway. And we need to be especially careful about our FIV+ crew not getting in among other cats, of course, so this is most unhelpful. I’ve actually had to pick up Thomas and hold him, open the door, step over the threshold, and carefully place Thomas back inside the solarium before he realizes what’s happening. This isn’t easy, especially as he’s both heavy and squirmy when you pick him up, but so far it’s been successful. I’m not looking forward to the day when Thomas figures this out and adopts a counterstrategy!
Thanks to you for helping us to keep our beautiful orange boy healthy and contented.