particularly the damp dreary ones, the cats find spots close to heat vents. If it were up to the them, they would crank the heat up to 85 degrees or more. My cats -- Gladys, Micky, Merl and Bruce are
inside-only cats. None of them started out that way. Each had a hard life before coming to live with me. Three of them, I know, lived outside. Bruce was found in an abandoned apartment, but his former life is a whole other story -- I will write about him later. Gladys had been chased up a telephone pole by a dog. It was reported that kids turned their dog loose on Gladys and she ran for safety. Days later, claws still clenching the pole, she was rescued by a D.C. Animal Control Office -- that was almost 17 years ago!
Micky, a plump orange tabby, was on his own for awhile. When he was rescued on a very cold January day in 2002, the pads on his paws were chapped and cracked. He was so happy to be in the shelter, he marched and purred nonstop. When we brought him home he went from bed to sofa to bed. 
Merl and his brother were found outside. Both cats were very sick. They went to a foster home until they were well enough to be adopted into new homes. Merl is the pretty brown tabby who makes himself very comfortable on the window sill and on the bed!
Although we know the cats spent time outside in their former lives, none of them has any desire to go outside now. Cats do not like the cold. And, cats left out in the cold will go to great lengths to find warmth. They will crawl up in the engines of cars that have been recently turned off. Unfortunately, sometimes they are still there when the driver starts the engine back up -- being mutilated by a fan belt is a horrible death. Cats crawl into storm drains, and burrow down wherever they can find a warm spot.
An inside cat is a safe, happy cat. If you have a cat, where are your cat's favorite places to hang out? For Merl, the best place in the house is where there is a person, a heating vent and a stream of sunshine!
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