Adventures in cat-sitting

I got a job cat-sitting through care.com (great site, BTW). The woman I'm working for will be out of the country until November 25 (visiting family in the UK), and I am caring for her eight cats while she's gone.

Problem? Seven of them are indoor-outdoor. Only once have I been able to get all eight inside at a time. (She has another woman handling mail and taking care of the plants, and she lets the cats out sometimes; my responsibilities are the cats and some light housekeeping.) The first few days I would come to the screen door to let them in, and they would panic and run away. Now they're starting to trust me, but a few of them are still nervous. The one who's strictly indoors won't let me get close at all.

They're healthy, well-fed and don't have fleas or other parasites, but I am concerned that it won't stay that way. All the cats in my life have been strictly indoor cats, so this situation makes me nervous. I would appreciate any advice.

As long as you can get them fed and watered, clean boxes etc. it's okay. It took a few visits for my cat I watch to get used to me. The first two visits I hardly ever saw him (he is diabetic so I was nervous he wouldn't come out of hiding for his shot-he always knew when it was time though and came out) He now sleeps with me! (i stay over the house, are you ??)

8! WOW!! I can understand why you are nervous, especially since they are outside sometimes. Just do your best at doing a head count everyday, making sure they are all still around and look in good shape.

Do they have water access when they are outside? Just in case they don't want to come in because they are nervous?

Have you tried luring them with treats?

I'm not staying over; I go over in the morning before I go to work and at least once in the evening. Last night I put canned food and treats out on the deck; two of the cats scarfed it up, and the others stayed away. I left a bowl of dry food and a bowl of water out overnight, and replaced it with fresh water and food this morning.

They do have access to fresh water outside, and I saw one of them with a mouse on Tuesday night.

It's going to get much colder this weekend, so I suspect they will be much more willing to come in.