Worried about next door's cats...

Our new-ish next-door-neighbours are a widower and his grown-up daughter who lived on a farm before they moved here. They have a sweet old dog and two lovely cats, Katie and Eilidh. K and E are 'outdoor cats' and aren't allowed in the house because they will/might mess inside. Of course, on the farm, there must have been at least one outbuilding where they could shelter from the weather, but here, in a tiny garden, there's no shelter for them at all. I feed them when the owners go away for a few days, and they get dry food and milk - no water (except when I'm feeding them. I give them water. I pointedly mentioned I couldn't find their water bowl, but to no effect). I've gone to feed them on occasion and found their food washed out of the bowl with the rain, and all over the ground. Anyway, the four of us have been very worried about them. Winters here are either pretty cold and frosty or VERY wet. I've been wondering how to fix up a wee shelter for them. Yesterday I had a brainwave! I've bought another hooded toilet tray (looking at the one used by our lot inspired me!), lined it with cardboard, (plenty of that from ordering books online ), put in a fluffy blanket, covered it all over with an old, deflated, blow-up bed, weighted it with a concrete slab, and set it on an old, low table, round the side of the house near the common fence that they sit on. I put a double dish of dry food and water at the entrance, to catch their interest. Now I just HOPE they'll use it. I'll let you know...

Penny

Penny i'll move this to Care and Grooming

What if you make a little trail of kibbles from where they sit along to their new shelter?.

You angel for looking after their needs though

awww that's so sad. Hopefully they will use the shelter.
Have you tried talking to them?

what a great idea for an outdoor home for the little mites I suppose you´re getting snow up there in Bonnie Scotland now eh ? I´m sure they´ll find it, outdoor kits are very resourceful, and they will know they have a loving carer in you - thanks for thinking and doing something for them

I'd looked at kennels in the petshop, but they were a bit too expensive for us. So the idea of the hooded tray was like a bolt of lightning! I think it's just big enough for them to cuddle into together....
No snow yet, but lots of flooding (K and E were in a cattery for the last week and a half - we were so relieved that they had shelter. Now the owners are back and K and E are outside again) and today, quite hard frost. We're affected by global warning, too...

Penny

When I'm looking after them while the owners are away, I talk to them while I'm putting out their food and one in particular comes and rubs against me. She came through the cat flap at 4.30 one morning a month or so ago. The dogs (all our pets sleep with us!) heard her and went roaring downstairs - intruder alert!!!! She panicked, of course and broke a plant pot and part of a venetian blind as well as knocking stuff off the window (this is NOT a minimalist house!!!!) John shut the pups in the bedroom and I found her on the window ledge and picked her up. She scratched me, just in panic, when I was putting her out. At least it was dry that night...

Penny

Any updates on K and E?? Poor things, those old attitudes about animals are as cruel as the old notion that debtors should be sent to a poorhouse to work off their debts