The transition of Butterscotch and Nosencrantz into indoor cats progresses.

Butterscotch has started to come out of her favorite corners of my office/bedroom more often, even when other cats are in the room. She turns her nose up at me, but if my husband or daughters come into the room, she will come out and, if there aren’t too many other cats around, come for pets. She still has shown zero interest in leaving the room!

Nosencrantz, on the other hand, is getting more adventurous and has started to explore on her own a bit. She particularly likes to visit my husband in his room, even when there are other cats sleeping on his hospital bed.

She especially likes his little side table, and keeping him company while he is on his computer!

I’m really glad we were able to catch her and get her fixed when we did. Her female age-mates in the yard have been going into heat. Today, we saw Caramel entertaining all the boys in the yard. Including…

The Distinguished Guest.

Crud.

As a long haired black cat, it’s really hard to see well enough to identify gender. He did allow me to pet him while he was eating, and I was able to do a quick examination, and I found no nibs. Or anything else, for that matter. I figured we had either a female, or a neutered male, moving in with the yard cats.

He’s been fighting with Potato Beetle and Creamsicle Jr., which suggested males establishing status, but Rolando Moon and Butterscotch both did that, too. Rolando Moon was fixed when we were in the process of moving here, while Butterscotch remained intact until recently, so that particular status made no difference.

After seeing The Distinguished Guest entertaining Caramel, however, it seems we have an intact male added to the mix.

Except…

… some of our neutered males in the house have also tried to engage in such activities when the ladies went into heat. Heck, just today, I saw Beep Beep, whose belly is still growing its fur back from being spayed, trying to get it on with Turmeric. I’ve seen some of our other female cats engaging in similar behaviour, which is typically a sign that they will soon go into heat, but Beep Beep shouldn’t be doing that anymore! Which means, I guess, that it’s still possible The Distinguished Guest is just frustrating Caramel, but… the chances of that seem pretty low.

Nosencrantz, at least, gets to skip all that, and just be adorable.