Is it okay to let my cat live in the basement?

It sounds a little harsh, but hear me out:

I got my cat Mochi this last week. He looks to be either a fire point Siamese or a mix of a fire point Siamese and something else, so VERY affectionate and VERY sweet. I feel very lucky to have him and I’ve already bought him everything a little kitty could ever need.

My roommates also absolutely adore him and we all periodically check on him throughout the day. He is very loved already and has already gotten acclimated to the basement, where we’ve made a little Harry Potter nook under the stairs for him. Our basement isn’t finished, but we put in extra effort to clean up and give him a somewhat furnished area complete with a kitty diffuser and everything. But even then, he seems to prefer sleeping on a sleeping bag in another room that we haven’t really furnished at all. The basement is the same size as the upstairs with only 2 rooms he doesn’t have access to, but he has the main “living room” and 2 larger rooms all to himself. There are windows in these rooms, though not very large, just to give an idea of his set up. We also leave the lights on for him.

We’ve been slowly introducing him to my Shiba, who is very excitable and just wants to play with the kitty. Unfortunately, kitty doesn’t want to play back. He swatted my dog’s nose when my dog got too close and I immediately intervened, but other than that, their last meeting went pretty well and they ended up kind of sniffing each other curiously. We ended it there on a good note and ushered kitty back to the basement.

Since then, Mochi is a little less eager to come upstairs. We have a kitty door that we unlock when we hear him crying at the bottom or top of the basement stairs and we’ll try to coax him through to come up with us. He isn’t really coming up anymore, and prefers the basement. However, he doesn’t seem too bothered being down there. Every time I go down, he’s sleeping on his rolled up sleeping bag, or he meows at me at the bottom of the steps and follows me as I clean his litter and feed him. My roommates and I check on him and play with him throughout the day. He seems perfectly content with the basement. That being said, when I googled around, I saw a lot of people saying it was unfair or basically borderline neglect to keep a cat in the basement. But Mochi seems to not mind it at all.

Obviously I’m going to try to continue to get him and my dog introduced at their own pace, but if he never really adapts to my dog, I’m not sure if it would be okay to keep both pets when I move out and just keep them separated in a similar fashion so long as both seem happy. I love them both and I’m sure they will eventually adapt. I mean, it’s only been a week, and my dog has lived with 4 other cats in the past. But if not, I want them both to be happy, and I would gladly turn Mochi over to my roommates when I move out if I have to, in order to give Mochi a better life.

I’m also open to using money to upgrade the basement if that will help Mochi as well. We plan on living in this house for a while, so I’m fully committed to improving it for all of us so it’s also easier for us to hang out more down there if it comes down to it.

Any insight? Mochi is my first cat as an adult on my own and I’ve never really known cats to need a whole lot, but I don’t want to make decisions based on ignorance.

Thank you!

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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/qty0jc/is_it_okay_to_let_my_cat_live_in_the_basement/