The Cats aren't Adjusting

What do you do with overanxious cats?

No, this is not some bad joke with a missing punch line. Seriously, what do you do with cats who've never lived in a creaky old house before.

Our "new" house was built in 1900. It's fabulous and big and wonderfully Victorian...but it also has hiding places our cats quickly discovered.

Confucius, my already nervous cat, found the best spot in the basement. Just where the side of the basement stairs meet the duct work for our heating system, there's a gap between the top of the heating ducts and the floor joists. It's just large enough for a cat to squeeze through.

I could close the basement door, but then the litter boxes have to go somewhere else, but after a few years of litter scattered over hardwood floors I'm not about to go through that again. Especially since we have plank board floors that have, in some places, wide gaps that need to be filled.

Yesterday was our first night in the house, so we'll see how it goes. I'm sure they'll adjust sometime (right?). The did eventually get used to the sound of wind on our 4th floor balcony. It took them a while to get used to ambulances and car alarms (and when they did, they were far better about the noises than I was).

This neighborhood is much quieter than our last neighborhood. We missed any hubbub on St. Patty's day so I couldn't speak about Southie during its rowdiest. Even though it's quieter I see my cats less often here. They seem to be hiding half of the time.