You will know what a cat is really watching at the window, when that window settles it, when it winds it up, and what risks it adds.
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The window is the busiest place in any home with a cat in it. It is also where the most serious household accidents happen.
For a cat that stays indoors, the window is the only source of unpredictable events in the day. The rest of the home is known by heart, morning to night.
That is why a busy sill is a good sign, and why a flat where every window is high or covered is poorer than it looks.
A cat does not admire scenery. It follows what moves: birds, leaves, people walking past, the car pulling in. A window facing a blank wall occupies it far less than one facing a hedge.
If all your views are dead ones, nothing is lost: a bird feeder outside, out of reach, puts movement back on the other side of the glass.
Plenty of modern sills are too narrow for a cat to settle on, so it leaves after a couple of minutes. You assume it has lost interest in the window, when it simply cannot get comfortable there.
A wide board wedged in front of the glass, a chest of drawers moved across, a chair with a blanket on it: any steady surface at the right height will do. Just check what sits underneath, because a hot radiator below the lookout turns the best place in the house into a bad idea in winter.
A neighbourhood cat crossing the garden every evening is an intruder yours can see and do nothing about. In some cats that alone is enough to set off spraying, night-time waking, or arguments with the other cat in the house.
The check is simple: if the tension clusters around one particular window, cover the lower part of the glass for a while and leave the top clear for light. You will soon know whether that was the source.
A closed room behind a sunlit window climbs faster than the rest of the home, and the air does not move. A cat asleep in a patch of sun does not necessarily wake at the right moment, especially an older one.
That is not a reason to keep it out of the sun, it is a reason to leave it an alternative: a shaded spot it can reach in the same room, and water somewhere it passes. Choice works better than a ban.
The saying is wrong in practice, and it costs a lot. A cat does have a righting reflex, but that reflex does not cancel the impact, and it is no help at all if the animal falls while asleep, is startled, or launches itself after a bird.
Falls from windows and balconies are a familiar reason for a veterinary consultation, including from low floors. A fall can break a jaw or a pelvis, or cause internal injury with no visible wound at all.
The thing to remember is this: a cat that has fallen should be seen by a vet even if it walks away.
A window left open in the tilted position forms a V that narrows towards the bottom. A cat trying to squeeze through slides towards the point and jams there, and the more it struggles the further it goes. The injuries that follow are serious. Guards made to fill that opening exist, and the simplest rule is never to leave the window in that position while you are out.
An insect screen is designed to stop insects, not to take the weight of an animal leaning on it or hooking its claws into it. Before relying on one, pull on it by hand where it is fixed.
A net made for animals is chosen on its fixings as much as on its mesh, and it is worth checking after the winter: the frame gives way first, rarely the net itself.