just a cat

The weather is turning very cold for a few days after being mild most of the season. I checked over my plastic tub cat dens, put in some more insulation and added a new one. When I retire a refrigerator, I may make something like VH has for his cats.

I also have two old coolers with a pet bed and heating pad located where I can reach with an extension cord.

That's probably plenty. Most of these cats know where to go and use the benefits my neighbors and I provide. My neighbor to the west told me that Callie and Anita have slept in a heated dog house with their Irish Setter. To the east, my neighbor has set about six soft cat houses on their back porch. Tanya at the neighbor's porch:

These 'ferals' are probably more spoiled than a lot of pets.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

They say to use straw for bedding because it is water resistant and the cats will have less chance of getting frozen to the bedding. Plus it seems to make a pretty good insulator. 

It got to -20F last night and the freezer was a balmy 40F with the thermostat set at 80 with a 50 watt heating element. Too bad nobody wants to live in the freezer, just come and fill up with water and food and then on their way.

Except for Lucy who moved into the garage and wanted to come inside. She might be about 9 months old so we trapped her in a cat carrier and placed her in the basement under the stairs after I rehung the door I built for the other pregnant one year old kitty who's due date was right during an April blizzard 7 years ago. I hope she's not pregnant already. She is in quarantine until we can get to the vet and have her checked out and vaccinated. Hopefully, my daughter will take her.

Edit: To clarify, Lucy has been living in our garage for the last 2 months in a heated double walled tote with a plug in heating pad from Chewy very similar to this one (under a regular cat bed covered with my old dirty tee shirt). We leave the back door open for the dog to come and go into our fenced in back yard while it was so warm this fall. Lucy can come and go as she pleases and she chose to hang out with me. That makes her cat #6.

Chewy.com: K&H Pet Products Extreme Weather Kitty Pad & Fleece Cover 40 watts $57.53

Rita did well in captivity and was starting to play with our cats through holes in the dog crate.

When the temperature rose to the mid thirties today, I released her by the spring. Her older brother Handsome Dan and mother cat Sasha came down the hill and sniffed her, then four other cats came to check her out. I went to get a camera and she was mostly alone when I came back.

She's a happy healthy cat and I look forward to seeing her at feeding times.

Our kittens, PJ and Una are very close. When I first captured them and was looking for a home someone wanted 'just the black one'. I'm so glad that we didn't separate them.

Their mother Bobbie (now becoming less of a feral) gets special treatment, often getting her own food bowl on the back patio.

I'm worming the cat colony this week. Three days of Valbazen on  canned food. I plan to do it about twice a year.

We've gotten into fostering cats with the local adoption organization. First round went well - we didn't keep any cats! And they found their forever homes relatively quickly. 

We're going to do it again. 

This should allow us to have cats on a more temporary basis, which is good considering I've got nearly 6 weeks of vacation this year and want to use it without worrying about whether we'll find someone to take care of them. 

In reply to pheller :

Thanks for fostering!

I don't dare to foster as I'd likely end up with a 100% foster fail rate, but I admire people who do. 

We are fostering a couple of senior cats, as they do very poorly in shelters. And everyone knows what our "long term foster" really means, it means that the shelter was able to find a home for a couple of seniors and we didn't have to pay an adoption fee. They're not going back.

One of them is Paris, who is a well-fed black lady with opinions. She's basically shaped like a stuffed animal. She's a little stiff, but that doesn't keep her from rocketing up the stairs at bedtime. She's apparently 10. Lewis, our other black cat, is fascinated by her. I don't know if it's because she's the only other black cat he knows or if he wants a mom, but he follows her around.

The other is Hastings, who is the most shocklingly athletic cat I've ever met. Long limbed, incredible jumper (floor to the top of the fridge is effortless) and very graceful. He's supposedly 7 but I'd believe 3. The other "fast cats" in the house have learned that if you want to play, you have to be ready to sprint and not just jog. He's also turned out to be a snuggler who loves sleeping on laps. He is also bonded to Paris. I call him Stretch.

Size comparison. Here they are in last August on day 1. Paris has lost a little bit of weight, but she's still well padded.

Stretch.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Is that Hastings as in Captain Hastings. He's a big ol' boy.

Yesterday I finally trapped Elvis and took him to the vet be "fixed" and shots. He's on the porch for a couple of days. It was dark in the cage so the picture is pretty bad.

The weather is forecast to turn very cold again with temperatures around Zero degrees F. We decided to build a cat house elevated on our fence where our dogs can't harass the cats. Thomas was the site foreman and Smokey made sure that the materials were up to spec.

It's 48" x 24" with two doorways and a narrow loft at the back.

The time that I had available was enough to make it habitable. I have plenty of finish work to do later.

The interior has two electric heating pads that I'll run on a 12 hour timer. Before the temperature drops, I plan to cover the entrance with cloth or vinyl flaps.

The big question is, will they even use it? Feral cats have lived around here for a few generations and have made their own adaptations. I'm probably going to get some hay/straw from one of my rancher friends to make the interior feel and smell more appealing to them.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Put some food in front of the openings and inside it and they will find it. I hear cats can smell almost as well as dogs. Good Job!

Overnight low got down to -33°F last night and my Freezer cat house was +30° this morning. There was a light ice coating on the water bowl and I had to block off one of the two entrances to keep the draft to a minimum. Blacky is finally spending all of his time inside.

The two young super feral and skittish kitties that are living in my unheated tote house at the city pump station where still alive yesterday and are going through a ton of food and hopefully survived last night. I am filling up their food daily and will stop by later to fill it up again. Hopefully, the two snuggled up together is helping. I have the openings covered with clear plastic vinyl and duct tape flaps with 18" of 1/8" gap around the perimeter to allow fresh air in and also keep the cold out.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

I have known quite a few people who build feral cat homes and have worked with feral cat colonies, and they will use them. The biggest concern with these homes is keeping them clean. If a cat or other animal sprays, it can deter others from going in. So, try to remove anything that can retain the smell or use enzyme cleaners to eliminate the source of the problem. I'm so glad to see you made one, though! Feral kitties deserve warm places to sleep too.

During the extreme cold weather I only saw one cat actually go inside the cat house. This morning with the temp just a little below freezing I saw four cats come out when I went to feed them. By evening the temperature was in the mid 50s and most of the snow and ice was gone. When I was traveling early in the month, Mrs AAZCD moved the feeding area away from the spring and closer to our house. I made a quick cover out of scrap wood to keep the snow and ice off their food. It worked well enough, but this is a long term commitment and I should clean the area up and make something nice.

I've been watching the Humane Society websites again.  There was one cat named "Speed Racer", but the current winner of the "Best Shelter Name" award:

In reply to Oapfu :

Pico de Gato reminds me a lot of Smokey.

My first evening off after a long stretch of night shift. After feeding the ferals I hung out with them sharing cat treats and a coffee cup of wine. We talked about the last week; the flight that I had to abort for a maintenance issue, the burned guy, and the changes in weather. Handsome Dan has really warmed up to my presence recently.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Smokey seems like a very distinguished kitty haha. I also have a gray cat named Kyoshi. She is a bit of a diva. 

Handsome Dan has started following me when I'm outside in the evening. Last night he taught me a new trick.

I've been feeding 'Betty's Clan' at my neighbors house for a couple days while they were away. Those cats relocated to my neighbor's yard after I released Betty (the matriarch) from being spayed. Of them, Betty, Nike, and Fluffy have all had extended captivity for veterinary care and keep their distance from me. It was good to see that they are all doing well. Here's Betty:

...and Fluffy today.

Nike and Ranger stay near entries to the storm drain when I'm around so they can make a hasty retreat if I approach.

Cats, Foxes, Possum, Skunk, Raccoon - They all get along.

Except the fat raccoon poops at the food bowls.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

It is so cool how much wild animals get along when they are in an area that is well taken care of. I think so many people only ever see the harsh side of nature on TV, and we forget that coexistence is a large part of nature. Also, unrelated, but the face of the cat in the last photo is hilarious. My cats make that face all the time. 

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

I don't know, but I'm not sure any of those critters are best buddies. I've heard stories about raccoons and foxes killing cats.

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

I'm not expecting them to be friends, but at least where I observe them they coexist peacefully. I do think that kittens have fallen prey to a fox in the past, or it may have been stray dogs that pass through the area. ...and the big raccoon can be an a-hole.