I cant sleep knowing there are so many cold/hungry cats in the freezing weather

This time of year is devastating for me, I have a hard time sleeping at night and during the day I think of and worry about all the freezing cold and hungry cats out there. Can anybodt help me feel better about this situation? How do feral and stray cats survive the harsh winter months?

Feral cats are able to survive very harsh winters, which is why there are so many feral offspring in the Spring. They grow very thick coats. They burrow under porches and outdoor shacks, in garages, and they huddle together to share body warmth. They eat snow when streams freeze and hunt rodents under the ground. They eat food thrown away in trash. Their chances of survival are better, of course, if they have human caregivers to feed them. It's much harder for strays to survive in winter because they don't have the savvy that ferals do. Their best hope is that humans will either take them into their homes or to a shelter; unlike many ferals, strays make great pets.

Your worrying and going without sleep is not going to help the cats, and it's not healthy for you. Perhaps you can volunteer at your local animal shelter or donate money to Alley Cats, ASPA, or Humane Society . You can only help the cats God sends across your path-- you can't help every cat in the world that is homeless. It's difficult to think about the suffering that many children and animals endure in this life--they are truly helpless and at the mercy of the adults who make all of the decisions in life. If you are doing your best to be kind to the people and animals you encounter each day, then you are doing all you can do, and can sleep peacefully at night.   

Thank you so much MsAimee, your response will help me greatly. I am a single mom with 2 kids and 4 cats so I cant take anymore cats in my home but you can bet I ask and harass as many people as i can to help these homeless angels. I donate monthly to the SPCA but am so afraid to volonteer as I think I would be devastated each time I left the shelter......it is something ive fought with internally for a long time. I am aware I will be and am close to being a crazy cat lady!! I had a thought when I was sitting outside at 4am this morning ( unable to sleep again....) I am going to make/build/create cat shelters and donate them where there are known strays and feral cats. If I know of a stray, I do everything in my power to find a home for it but I dont know of any around my home and Ive asked neighbours. I can get the word out via social media, or was thinking maybe I could go to vets offices and let them know I have cat shelters for donation, if anybody knows of any homeless cats.......I just have to figure out how to make them!! I think I will feel like I am doing everything I can to help the ones I can, and maybe people will follow and do the same. Thats all I can hope and wish for. Thanks again for the reply, I think I may be able to sleep tonight knowing what I know now. Bless you and all the wonderful people helping and loving the most incredible animal in the world.....The Cat! xo

Hi, I understand completely what you're going through! I have also been worrying so much about the poor feral cats in my woods/yard that I recently starting feeding. I built them a Rubbermaid shelter filled with straw and they actually use it! I covered that with a card table and draped a tarp over it so they have a little "porch" underneath. But I had to cut two big holes so they have an escape route, which means it must be freezing in their little box. The low is supposed to be 3 degrees this week and I am trying to figure out something I can do for them. I need to build a wooden house but don't have time to get something done by this week. I feel horrible that my cats live in a nice warm house and they are outside, I am just hoping they can make it through winter. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in your thoughts and you are already doing WAY more than most people!!!

I am so glad I live on Florida because I would be the same way. If it gets 50 degrees here I put the electric blanket on the porch. Cats are very adaptable. Several years ago I saw a special on "amazing cats" and there are actual domestic cats roaming around the arctic from oil prospectors and settlers who were there before and left behind their domestic cats. So they can survive though I know it's hard to believe. They are a lot more resilient then us humans. it's not healthy for you, your children or your cats at home, to let your worry affect your life this way. We do all we can do but we cant save them all. You have 4 now, that's 4 you were able to save please look at it that way.

HeyJude, I am in the same place as you; I lack sleep and worry during the day so much of the time. I also cannot go into shelters and volunteer because it would devastate me. I joined a feral group to trap cats years ago, and had to stop due to the pain and suffering I saw.

I'm trying to get out of that mode currently, how are you doing? I think making shelters is an excellent idea. it helped me a little bit to know that when it went down to 5 below here last month for 5 days in a row, they made it through somehow. I didn't have a shelter either. The food I left out would freeze and cold not be eaten, and the snow covered it anyway. I stopped feeding for at this point, because I thought the ones I care for died, but lo and behold one snowy morning I saw that one of them dug through the snow to get some leftover food on a plate. Had not seen them for well over a week. So, hopefully that helps you as well. Hearing hexiesfriends' story about the arctic cats helped me a bit more also.

Good luck with your shelters! I think I may consider doing this also. If you happen to be in Colorado, let me know and if you like we can combine resources and get them done. Making shelters would be a great benefit to them, especially here in Colorado where it's so cold and snowy.

i feel horrible as well. here in PA it has been a freezing week and everyday i step outside I'm reminded of the cats that are out there. I always tell my cats how lucky they are to have a nice warm house! I do think most survive but i honestly don't know how they do it. Last winter my next door neighbors kicked there pet cat out in the dead of winter. they just threw her litter box along side the house along with empty food bowls. so cruel. naturally the cat was hanging around so i started feeding her. She probably wasn't even a year old yet. there were nights it was so cold i was worried she might not be around the next day but she always was. I had 1 cat at that time and I had an agreement with my room mate only 1 cat allowed. when she would go away on the weekends i would sneak Bandit in. that was her name so i just kept it. Finally my room mate broke down and said i could move her in. She has not even bothered trying to go back outside again. she was definitely under weight and malnourished looking. I do not think next door was taking care of her properly at all! i got her fixed and i;m really proud of myself, she looks great now! So healthy and a decent weight. She's a beautiful grey girl! I now have 3 cats cause have since gotten married and live with my husband, just me and him. We adopted Stark together, he is a cat lover too. I keep telling him just one more but he says 3 are enough lol. I also think im going to look into making some type of shelter outside for the strays tho cause it really does break my heart.

my uncle has an enclosed back porch and he cut a whole in the screen big enough for the strays to come in. its a nice size, and it has a futon and he has put blankets in there for them and feeds them, i think its wonderful he does this.

I'm also in Pa and yes, very, very cold. I have 4 ferals coming up on my deck for food and 7 ferals on the next street that I feed every day. Don't know where they huddle to stay warm but they keep showing up. Sometimes I won't see one for a few days and I start worrying to my hubby about it, he reassures me it'll turn up and he's right. Though I have shelters on the deck with straw and heating pads that go on when a cat lies on it, they use them only intermittently, preferring wherever their original shelter is.

So try not to worry so much, there are so many miseries in this world none of us would get any sleep if we dwell on them too much. As suggested above, taking some kind of action may help. Try to redirect your thoughts to something pleasant when these upsetting thoughts crowd your mind, meditate, read, etc.

Again as above, worrying is wasted energy and with 2 children you need as much energy for them as you can get!

Karen