As you may already know I live in the treacherous wintry state of Minnesota. When the chilling season is upon us, it calls for temperatures that often go below zero degrees (Fahrenheit). This weekend here in the Upper Midwest, we saw temperatures ranging from -7 all the way to -25. It’s times like these where I have to avidly remind myself of what I live in Minnesota (Why is that again?).
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you will see that we have an outside cat that comes around (Kitty’s girlfriend Silvia). We hadn’t seen Sylvia for a while this fall, but then the other day (one of the coldest days we saw her). I put some food and water out for her, but she ended up running away when a car drove by.
I know many people think that cats are okay in the cold, but they are not and many cannot find a warm place. Growing up on the farm we had “barn cats” and one year I remember it had gotten so cold that the tips of their ears had gotten frost bite and eventually part of their ears froze off. I can’t bare the thought of that happening to them or to Silvia, so I decided something must be done, so I began researching how to make an affordable cat shelter or cat cave, if you will.
Here is what I did.
First I did some research and found that the cheapest/easiest options were to build it with storage tote containers. Since this was the day after Christmas they were on sale! I purchased one 20 gallon container for $7 and another 18 gallon container for $4. I also purchased a cat bed for $6. All together I spent a total of $17.
Next I marked where to cut a hole into the container and used a serrated knife and blow dryer (to soften the plastic) to cut through the tote. (Note: the hole should be big enough to fit a cat through, but small enough to block wind and to keep bigger animals out).
After cutting the whole in the large tote I placed some cotton (stuffing from an old pillow I had – but a blanket or old t-shirt would work too) on the bottom and placed the smaller tote inside. I took the marker and drew a line to match the hole of the large tote on the small tote and cut that one.
After that, I placed the cat bed inside the small tote and put the rest of the cotton in between the walls of the small tote and large tote for extra warmth.
After that I put some cat nip inside and had Kitty test it out. However, Kitty is terrified of boxes (I know, she’s not a normal cat), but she still checked this little cat den out.
After Kitty gave it the OK, we put it in the corner with the least wind and put some food and water next to it. Here is the finished product:
We haven’t seen Silvia come around since we’ve put it out two days ago, but I hope she comes by soon. If not, I hope that she was rescued from the cold.
If you’ve built a cat house/shelter – what have you done? Leave me a comment!
xxxx
Forever Now 