Conference misery::feline_v1

I had a cat some years back (called Twiggy, short for Twiglet) somewhat elderly 
and fat. The snow here in early '81 was very bad and ther were huge drifts all 
around the house.

After a couple of days using the litter box (Twiggy was an outdoor cat) she 
constantly asked to go out. I opened the back door where I has cleared away the 
snow. She ran outside only to turn round again as the remaining bits of snow 
stuck to her paws. She made a beeline for the front door where for some reason 
she had always figured that the weather was different to that out the back! She 
howled to go out. I told her it was no better .... rather worse in fact because 
I hadn't cleared away the snow. She would have none of it so I opened the door.  
Some snow fell inside the door - she took a flying leap  over it towards the 
path and with a WAAAAH-mmmmm-whimper she totally disappeared from view into a 3 
foot drift, tail and all! I laughed until it hurt .... I was still laughing as I 
dug around with my hands to pull her out. She didn't struggle but just stayed 
still until I lifted her out and put her in front of the fire to dry. She didn't 
look at me again for ages - just dried out, had a bit of a wash and a sleep. It 
was mid-summer before she asked to go out of that door again!

Avril

    	There's lots of cat tracks in the snow at my place. Vanessa is a
    bit dainty and trods where the snow is melted where she can, but
    there's lots of vast white stretches with cat tracks on them. 
    	Copy (RIP) being a purebred Maine Coon, lived up to his name and
    had a riot in the snow. He would bat it into the air with his forepaws
    and leap, whirl, and prance around in the stuff! I've got a great slide
    of him perched at the peak of a high snow pile. Although letting him
    be an indoor/outdoor cat (with catdoor) undoubtedly led to his early
    demise, it was quite evident that this was a cat meant for the great
    outdoors!  Vanessa is not a purebred Coon, but has a lot of Coon blood
    in her, so snow activity is not surprising. I imagine it depends on
    both the breed of cat and familiarity with outdoor activity. - Chris

    Benjamin LOVES to play in the snow.  If it's good packing snow, I'll
    make a snowball, throw it in the air about 3 feet off the ground, and
    he'll leap and bat at it.  It's great!  
    
    For the first time in a long time, even Barney had fun in the snow. 
    While we were out shoveling, he decided to play hockey with a little
    snow ball.  He was upset when it fell apart.... 'what did I do, Mom? 
    It's gone!"
    
    Mary
    

    We haven't had snow in Reading, England yet, but Oliver's first
    experience of frost the other day was funny to watch. He looked
    a bit dubious when he saw that the world had unaccountably turned
    white overnight, but when he actually got outside, I don't think
    he was prepared for it to be quite so cold. He hopped about on his
    little paws as though he was on hot bricks, then shot back inside...
    and stayed by the fire until outside had warmed up a bit.

    The first snow was pretty funny at our house.  Bitser, who is 12,
    is the only one who really has experienced snow since last winter
    was so mild.
    
    Well, I opened the door in the morning to let the gang out as is
    customary.  Bob, the 1.5 year old fluff, took off outside with his
    usual leap.  The tail puffed out, the head tilted, then he took
    off to explore this stuff.  Bitser took one look outside, remembered
    that awful stuff, and retreated to the basement.  She HATES winter.
    Esmarelda, the kitten, noted that something was not right when she
    was about 2 feet before the door.  She sniffed, looked, and walked
    the other way.  No way was she going to even investigate!!
    
    The funniest, though, was Zelda.  She is about a year old we think,
    and mostly burmese.  I don't know much about burmese, but this cat
    is quite a character.  Well, she took off out the door with her
    usual vigor, only to stop dead (or try to) when her feet hit the
    white stuff.  She looked back at me - "Hey, MOM, what'd ya do?"
    Then she scraped a spot bare with her front paws, took one step
    putting her back paws in the bare spot, and scraped another spot.
    This continued across the deck to the stairs.  Then she took a flying
    leap down all 4 steps at once, determined that the ground was no
    better, turned around and headed back to the house repeating her
    previous actions.  The kids and I were in hysterics watching this
    performance.  Zelda came in, shook her paws vigorously, gave a
    disgruntled growl, and went upstairs to curl up on the bed - maybe
    for the winter.  She didn't think this was very nice - this white
    stuff.  And besides, it is cold and wet!!! Not at all proper for
    a dignified cat....
    
    Ellen

    
    	Brandi loves the snow...doesn't bother her a bit.
    
    	Sasha only goes out on a leash and she wanted to go out this
    	weekend.  Ok, lets see how Sasha likes the snow.  I let her
    	out and she stops..."wait a minute, it's cold <sniff, sniff>,
    	smells ok"  She heads down the steps and I hook her up.
    	She walks along the sidewalk which is pretty much clear.
    	Then decides to go onto the lawn.  step, step..."hey, this
    	doesn't feel right!!"  step back, step back...lick, lick, lick.
    	Had to get the snow off her paws.  (so mum being the meany that
    	she is picks Sasha-kitty up and plunks her down in the snow)
    	She sits there for a minute, takes a few steps and then realizes
    	that this stuff is COLD!!  And immediately goes back to the side-
    	walk.  I don't think she's sure if she likes it or not.
    
    	JJ
    

    Tigger & Snuggles are indooor only cats.  Snuggles loves the outdoors
    and tries to sneak out whenever he can.  Well, I figured he was
    in for a surprise with about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. 
    Before I fed them in the morning, I let them check out the snow.
    Snuggles ran right out and stopped.  He sniffed and then started
    digging.  Then he decided to go off the porch, very carefully mind
    you.  He went about 20 feet still digging and sniffing.  Just to
    be sure he didn't take off, I opened the can of food at the door.
    Of course, at that he came running back in.  
    
    Tigger on the other hand, just sat and looked at it.  Then he went
    over and sniffed.  He decided he didn't want any part of this. 
    So I made the decision for him.  I picked him up and plopped him
    out into the snow on the porch.  He was not to pleased.  He picked
    up his paws to lick them but I guess it got to cold because the
    next thing I knew he was running into the house.  (What a wimp!)
    :-) 
    
    Kathy

    We have a complicated maze of kitty doors so that they can first gain
    access to the porch and then gain access to a highly fenced area.
    Smokey (who is part Maine coon) is too heavy to get up high enough,
    Patches had been abandoned so she never tries to scale the fence, and
    Misty can only leap up 1/2 way although full grown - it is an 8' fence.
    All 3 love to play in the snow.  Smokey leaves snowshoe tracks with his
    hind paws.  Because the doubling in front makes it look like he has
    giant thumbs with 3 appendages each - rolls up his own small snowballs,
    swats them in midair, and tries to catch the pieces.
    
    We have two little ones who cannot use the catcoor to the porch as it
    is too high and intentionally hard to open so they beg to go out on the
    porch - the porch is only screened so some snow gets in (except last
    Tuesday when we had a northeaster and 2' got in) and in small amounts
    they feel that it is "interesting" for about 5 seconds.
    
    As long as perches are swept off, the three adults spend a lot of time
    outdoor and the tracks are so dense the area is now packed down.
    
    Cathy

    We decided to let the girls out on the upper deck for a while (under
    close supervision since Melody has figured out how to leap from the 
    railing up onto the condo roof and roam around).
    
    Melody went out--no problem, but then she has had a lot of experience
    in the snow having been rescued by the Humane Society in the dead of
    winter a couple of years ago.
    
    Missy took a step out with her front paw and then right back in.
    She sat in the door way and kept sticking one paw out and pulling
    it back.  She finally screwed up enough courage to step totally
    out which lasted all of 2 seconds before she was back in shaking
    the awful white stuff off her feet.
    
    Brittany came running to go out and skidded (metaphorically 
    speaking) to a dead stop, sniffed at the snow, back up 2 inches
    and sat.  No way was she getting closer.
    
    Melody ran all over the deck until her feet got too cold and she
    came back in to warm up.  Of course, when I shut the slider, she
    gave me a dirty look.  "I'm not finished out there Mummy!  I'm
    just taking a break."  Had I not been trying to get everything
    ready for Thanksgiving, I would have put on boots and gone out
    with them.
    
    They say we may get a big storm this weekend.  If so, I'll take
    the camera and go out and play with them.
    
    Barbara (Melody, Missy and Brittany)
    

    
    Well, neither of my kids ever experienced snow before, since there 
    wasn't much to experience last year, and what a laugh I had watching
    them!!  Taco was the brave one, looking out there, and slowly putting
    down first one paw and then the other. JellyBean just looked at him
    from inside, wondering what it was like, but not daring to step out
    there. Taco stood there, two paws outside and two paws in, looking
    outside, and it was like all of a sudden he realized it was cold and
    ran back inside, shaking out his paws. Well, JellyBean didn't know
    what to do now, wanting to know what all this was about, but scared
    to give it a try, so I picked her up and plunked her down in it about
    2 feet away from the slider, and it turned out that she loved it!!!
    She was bouncing around in it, swishing it up into the air, she
    couldn't get enough of it, but as soon as i stood up as if to close
    the door she shot back inside....