Weather anxieties

I so hope she makes her way back to you after all of that shoveling.  Even if you don't have a sleeping bag you can use a thick blanket or comforter or wool coat if necessary.  Yet you certainly don't want it to freak her out.  Please update when you can.

The best I could think of to do is I put another piece of cardboard covering most of the opening to about a 4x4 opening.  I couldn't really put cloth over the whole because of the small opening.    She hasn't come back yet and the wind is whipping at 35 miles an hour with temp of 4.  If she does come tonight I left a bowl of dry food in there for her.  If she stays under the house I hope to God she survives.  I am so worried I want to cry but am  trying to keep it together.  I wish I could do something else.  I'll check her house in the morning and update you.  Say a prayer.

feline, her house is heated, right? You don't need to worry so much about covering it--just put a blanket over part of the entrance/exit, but don't cover too much of it. She needs to feel she can comfortably get in and out and see what's going on. If it's on the breezeway then it's out of the direct wind, right?  Covering is more of a concern for me because Muffin's house has a thermal cushion, not a heating pad.

Muffin came out of his house this evening when I got home from work to eat some warm wet food with water, then went back into his house. I suspect he is spending all of his time in there except to come out to eat. I hope he is relieving himself in the bushes in front of my house instead of venturing to the patch of woods beyond my back yard. I don't want him to get frostbite or hypothermia. I've told him several times to relieve himself in the bushes next to the porch--I hope he got my vibes. Sometimes I think he does understand me.

There's no end in sight. I've lived in the Pittsburgh area on and off for several years, and while we've always had snowy winters, I don't recall winters like the last few years where we've had so many days with temperatures in the sub zero range and wind chill -30-40. .

Last year around this time I started a winter anxiety thread, so I guess I will be known as the winter worry wart on this forum.

MsAimee said:

Insidehouse.jpg

• msaimee
• Nov 18, 2014

housecovering.jpg

• msaimee
• Nov 18, 2014

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I think your house is an upgrade from the K&H models.  The upscale log cabin version   Very nice!  I'm not sure I'd use straw with a heating pad, either, and, as an alternative to a traditional pad, I've been tempted to try a seed mat.  They keep the temp. constant and the K&H pad only heats above room temperature when the cat is lying on it.  

We've got dry food in a heated bowl and wet is placed on a microwave pad nestled in a pie plate.  It's one of those "stays warm for 10 hours" deals, though I doubt it stays warm for very long in these temps.  They polish off the wet pretty fast, fortunately.

 There's no end in sight. I've lived in the Pittsburgh area on and off for several years, and while we've always had snowy winters, I don't recall winters like the last few years where we've had so many days with temperatures in the sub zero range and wind chill -30-40. .

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I've been here much longer than that (longer than I care to mention!) and these subzero temps. are definitely a newer phenomenon.  I've always joked with the family that I'm going to move to Alaska someday and after this week I don't think I'll be mentioning it again 

Warm and toasty vibes to all the ferals   

Thanks for the encouragement, the3rd name! I was starting to get nervous that maybe my pet house isn't adequate because so many folks use heated pads. I bought the cedar house three years ago when I had a better job--it cost over two hundred dollars and I borrowed power tools and put it together myself (quite a feat, for me). I think this pet house is the best gift I've ever given to any living creature--animal or human--ever. Muffin know it's his house. He loves it. He knows that I gave it to him. The problem is that the weather the past two winters has been insane, who could have prepared for this.  I may try a heated pad inside next Fall instead of straw to see if he likes it, but I don't want to change things now. He came out of his house a bit ago and I fed him again, and while he was eating, I added some more straw in his house, and in the process, the sleeping bag must have come down a bit lower on his one entrance. At first he was afraid to go back inside and I wanted to kick myself. After a few minutes, he crawled back inside. I hope the extra straw will be helpful, it's -3 now with wind chill of -17. I want him to push it around the cushion to form a wall of straw protection, but still have direct contact with the cushion. I know he knows I'm trying to help. I worry about predators or other cats showing up (two other cats came around his food bowl a week ago), and him being so vulnerable in that house, but I hope the other wildlife are burrowed somewhere in this cold and won't venture out to my porch.

feline03 said:

 
NEED ANY SUGGESTIONS

I'm in Burlington, MA so I don't know where you are reporting from.  It has stopped snowing and we have another 17 inches of snow!  I haven't checked on Blacky yet this morning because I fear she will run from her house.  The last time it snowed I went to shovel the stairs off that are on the side of her house and she ran under the house next door.  I can see her house from my kitchen window and there is about 12 inches left open not covered with snow.  I left her dry food last night along with wet food and treats and will check if she ate any of it. 

My plan is to quietly as I can shovel the steps and go to the snow blower and start clearing the snow, just one pass in the backyard and doing the front first.  I don't want to clear her area until last for fear she will leave.  I will leave the breezeway door open so she can run in there if she wants.  Hopefully she will and not anywhere else but she is afraid of going in there for being trapped. 

The temps are going down to 4 degrees tonight with a wind chill of 35 below.  And not going up much for the next few days.  I don't know what else to do to try to keep her warmer . Any thoughts? 

Here is the description on her house.  Large Rubbermaid insulted with thick housing insulation, straw and a heated mat.  One enterance.  I put boards all around the house to keep the wind out except for one area that is about 24x12.  Maybe somehow I can put a tarp over the opening to further block the wind.  But, again, I am worried to disturb her for fear she will run away. 

If anyone has any suggestions I would be greatly appreciated.   

I'm trying keep myself from getting sick with worry.

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feline03 said:

 
I don't have a sleeping bag.  Guess what, I finished clearing around and in her house and went in the house to get her some food.  I looked out the window and she was going over to the house next door again.  She could barely make it, sinking in the snow and had to rest half way.  She end up panting but make it back underneath the house next door.  After 4 hours of snow blowing and shoveling, I AGAIN shoveled a path for her to come back to my yard.  I am absolutely exhausted and can't do any more.  I hope she comes back to her house.  She did eat all the wet and dry food I left for her yesterday.  All I can do is keep calling her and hope she comes back to eat.  She must have been so scared, I saw pee in the snow when I was shoveling the patch, poor baby.  I know she has to get her energy back to go through the snow again but I hope it's before tonight when the temps are going to plummet to zero!  SO FRUSTRATING.

Say a prayer, I know I will.

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 @feline03  I can understand how you feel, but please don't worry so much. She has two places she can shelter and a regular supply of food and water so she'll be OK. Cats will move between one shelter and another, it's their instinct telling them to move from any place where their smell is strong and may attract predators. It's also their way of avoiding fleas and other parasites.

It's great that she has started eating again. This is huge, it shows there isn't anything seriously wrong with her. All of my cats are eating less and sleeping a lot more at the moment. I think the fact that you've seen her, she is eating and she is moving from one shelter to another are all very positive signs.

I used to have tarps over my outdoor shelters but I took them off as the wind would whip them around and the noise would scare the cats. If your shelters are waterproof you could cover them with an old blanket tied in place to stop the wind from moving it. This will give more insulation than a tarp.

Her fur is going to keep her warm, cats have amazingly insulating coats. It's -20C here at night and only just above freezing during the day but even the feral cats who only have barns to sleep in are doing fine.

Lots of vibes for you and your girl.



And get some rest! I know how exhausting clearing snow can be, you need to take care of yourself too.

Norchan,

THANK YOU for your wisdom.  You have given me a little comfort .  I knew you would make me feel better    .  You have much knowledge.  God bless you for writing to me. 

I wish I knew how to post a picture so I could post her house and people would know what it looks like and where it is.  I see there is an attachment button but I tried that before and it didn't  post.  Someone helped me the last time. 

I have a question about how concerned I should be about having one of the entrance/exits of Muffin's house blocked off with the sleeping bag. There is another male cat (looks like he's related to Muffin, actually) who occasionally passes through my block and recently has come up on my porch few times when Muffin's been around. He looks good, so he must have a caregiver, he's not afraid of me, and when he's approached my porch, he hasn't eaten from Muffin's bowl. However, he'll sit and posture and caterwaul at Muffin. Muffin does not caterwaul back, but stands his ground (it's clear they know each other, and Muffin doesn't want to fight). This AM I heard caterwauling in the patch of woods behind my house and the other cat was caterwauling and posturing at Muffin, and I broke up their little confrontation. An hour later I don't see the other cat around, and Muffin is back in his house. If this other cat comes on my porch while Muffin is in his house, will he try to climb inside the house, trapping Muffin, or will he caterwaul on  the porch until Muffin comes out of his house? I am assuming this is a territory issue. I haven't tried to TNR the other cat yet because his appearances are so sporadic.

In my experience, even with two intact males, there is usually a lot of yelling and posturing before a fight breaks out. Quite often if the smaller tom backs away the whole thing fizzles out without any fur flying. I think if Muffin isn't responding to this cat's aggression it's unlikely that they will fight without a lot of noise first.

My feral/stray cats made it through the first really cold spell; they were all at the feeding station waiting for me.
It snowed last night, I am hoping at least two of them sought refuge in the winter shelter.

My boys are doing ok, they just seem to be going a little stir crazy.  Yesterday the high was 8.  They both ventured out for a bit.  We got some snow during the day so by early evening the snow shovels, plows and snow blowers were out.  They get so scared and hide under the deck.  It took Shadow almost 4 hours to venture back to the shelter.  I kept trying to call him and get him into the shelter, but he would come and then run.  He is so much more skittish during this cold snap.

Unfortunately I do not see an end in sight.  The next 10 days do not show much improvement.  Wednesday night is to be -4 and Thursday night -8.  I am not sure about wind chills.  This is just ridiculous.  I wonder if March will be cold and snowy too. 

I hope all the ferals are doing well.

Thanks for your response, Norachan. My question specifically is whether or not the other male cat would bother Muffin while Muffin is hunkered in his pet house, or if he would first caterwaul and wait for Muffin to exit the pet house to engage in conflict. I currently have one of the pet house's two entrances blocked off with a sleeping bag and wool coat due to the cold, so Muffin would be trapped in there if another cat or wildlife went in there through the one entrance. It's pretty snug in the house (17 inches by 17 inches, and filled with straw) so I don't think another cat would want to get involved in a conflict where it may be stuck inside himself, but it's something I get concerned about. I would appreciate it if anyone had any thoughts about this. Surely some of you have pet shelters with only one entrance--has this ever presented a problem to you when intruder cats came around?

I'm pretty sure this other cat (I will call him Harley) is an adult offspring of Muffin's. They are about the same size. I don't know why he's been coming around lately--he looks as though someone has been feeding him, so he's not starving. He has occasionally visited the block over the past year with no incidents. I don't believe Muffin will engage in aggressive behavior unless absolutely pushed into it because he has always been kind to his offspring, shared his food bowl with them, and even played with them. My  neighbors and I thought we had trapped and adopted all of  them, but evidently this one has a territory and caregiver other than our block.    

Oh no, more trouble now. I just saw a dozen starlings in Muffin's food bowl. I have problems with them invading usually twice a year in the summer and have to not leave food out for a few weeks till they leave. Now that they've discovered the food again I'll have a hard time leaving food out for Muffin, which will suck in this cold. I'm really frustrated at this point.

Hello All,

I finally figured out how to post pictures.  Sorry there are so many.  The first is Blacky.  Isn't she cute?  I haven't seen her since Monday when she went under the next door house.  I have left dry food out in her house and I think she is coming to eat it because a lot is missing but not all  I think if some other animal was eating it, it would be all gone.  She may not be staying in there since I put another piece of cardboard to block the entrance more because she feels too trapped and really has no view to see if another animal is coming in it.  So, I took the cardboard off again.  You can see the before and after pictures.  The last picture is a view from my kitchen window without the cardboard.  And, there are a couple of pictures of the path I shoveled, exhausting.  If you look at the first picture, you can see how far the shed is when she was there for about a week and how far it is from my yard.  I can't physically do that again so I hope we don't get any more heavy snow.  The second path  shows how deep this latest path was to the beginning of the house.

Hopefully she will start using her house again now that I took the extra cardboard off. 

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  I hope everyone's kitties are doing ok and surviving this brutal weather. 

Weather anxieties indeed. 

I am very fortunate that our 5 rescues are all indoors, but I'm sharing feeding on the weekends with a couple of lovely ladies who are caring for a small colony in the alley by their place of business.  They made a nice although unheated shelter for them (there are at least 4 regular cats and some other visitors) and they feed them during the week; another neighbor and I share weekend and holiday duty when they aren't there. They also have a few tamer cats who stay in their office during bad weather, but they say the others refuse to come in and be confined. 

Happily one of the cats (I'd call them homeless strays rather than true ferals) seems to have been semi-adopted by a car fixing business next door as on Saturdays I see him in the open garage/workshop there and he is pretty tame.  The man there does not speak much English but he gets that I am bringing food for the cats and says hello to me and we have small conversations.   It amazes me how tough these cats are, they singly or sometimes two or three appear to eat when I bring food and despite the awful freezing temps they seem happy and healthy.  These lovely ladies have neutered/spayed and got shots for all the cats they find at their own expense, I talk to them quite often (I suggested the shelter) and they clearly care about their charges.  

Anyway the point of this is that there are people out there who although maybe not having ideal shelters or feeding regimes do their best and that's a wonderful thing, and it helps if we can meet and coordinate efforts.   I found out about these two ladies when one of their strays started showing up at my door at weekends in the fall looking for food, she had a flea collar on so I tucked a note under it asking where she came from and they came to my house explaining the situation.  I was worried about the little girl crossing a a busy street to get to me, that's how the feeding routine started. 

Blessings to all of you helping these homeless cats and  many prayers that the weather improves soon.

Hi All,  I thought I posted some pictures and an update but it didn't go through.  Sigh. 

I haven't seen Blacky since she went under the house next door on Monday.  I have been leaving dry food out for her since then in her house.  When I check on her she is not in her house but most of the food is gone.  I think she is coming back to eat it and leaving.  If it were another animal, no food would be left.  This morning  I took  off the extra cardboard to enclose her house more from the wind because she can't really see if anything would be coming in an doesn't feel safe.  Hopefully she will start staying in there again. 

I am going to try to attach the pictures again.   They are of her house and the path I had to shovel snow for her to get back to my yard.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I hope everyone's kitties are surviving this brutal weather. 


House without extra cardboard



Path I shoveled


House next door and shed


Inside house



With Cardboard


This is Blacky.

MsAimee said:

 
Thanks for your response, Norachan. My question specifically is whether or not the other male cat would bother Muffin while Muffin is hunkered in his pet house, or if he would first caterwaul and wait for Muffin to exit the pet house to engage in conflict. I currently have one of the pet house's two entrances blocked off with a sleeping bag and wool coat due to the cold, so Muffin would be trapped in there if another cat or wildlife went in there through the one entrance. It's pretty snug in the house (17 inches by 17 inches, and filled with straw) so I don't think another cat would want to get involved in a conflict where it may be stuck inside himself, but it's something I get concerned about. I would appreciate it if anyone had any thoughts about this. Surely some of you have pet shelters with only one entrance--has this ever presented a problem to you when intruder cats came around?

I'm pretty sure this other cat (I will call him Harley) is an adult offspring of Muffin's. They are about the same size. I don't know why he's been coming around lately--he looks as though someone has been feeding him, so he's not starving. He has occasionally visited the block over the past year with no incidents. I don't believe Muffin will engage in aggressive behavior unless absolutely pushed into it because he has always been kind to his offspring, shared his food bowl with them, and even played with them. My  neighbors and I thought we had trapped and adopted all of  them, but evidently this one has a territory and caregiver other than our block.    

Oh no, more trouble now. I just saw a dozen starlings in Muffin's food bowl. I have problems with them invading usually twice a year in the summer and have to not leave food out for a few weeks till they leave. Now that they've discovered the food again I'll have a hard time leaving food out for Muffin, which will suck in this cold. I'm really frustrated at this point.

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 I have a modified dog kennel that I use as a cat shelter.  It only has one entrance but it hasn't caused any problems. Actually I had my trail camera set up in front of the kennel and feeding station for well over a year and never saw any fights taking place there. Like you said, I don't think a cat would risk getting in a fight in a place where he might get trapped.

My grandpa used to keep the starlings off  his garden by stringing up old Christmas tinsel, they don't like anything shiny. Some old CDs on a string would work too I think.

feline03 said:

 
Hi All,  I thought I posted some pictures and an update but it didn't go through.  Sigh. 

I haven't seen Blacky since she went under the house next door on Monday.  I have been leaving dry food out for her since then in her house.  When I check on her she is not in her house but most of the food is gone.  I think she is coming back to eat it and leaving.  If it were another animal, no food would be left.  This morning  I took  off the extra cardboard to enclose her house more from the wind because she can't really see if anything would be coming in an doesn't feel safe.  Hopefully she will start staying in there again. 

I am going to try to attach the pictures again.   They are of her house and the path I had to shovel snow for her to get back to my yard.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I hope everyone's kitties are surviving this brutal weather. 

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Awesome cat shelter @feline03  It looks very cosy. I think it is better with the cardboard off. It looks pretty snug inside so I don't think the cardboard will make it much warmer. Like you said, she probably feels safer being able to look out.

It's a worry looking after ferals in this weather isn't it? I went down to see the colony I look after in the village last night. Four of them were where they always are, inside the neighbour's garage where they sleep. I spent an hour walking around in the snow and found one of the others at a farm where they leave food out for the cats. She looked very comfortable with the other farm cats, maybe she's decided to move there? The other three I couldn't find.   But there are lots of barns and sheds for them to shelter in and at least three families leaving out food. Hope they're going to be OK.

You have a great setup for Blacky.  I think it is just the perfect spot for her.  I cannot believe you shoveled all that snow!  What an amazing person you are.  Blacky is so lucky to have you.  I am hopeful your weather will take a turn for the better soon. 

Like you said, I don't think a cat would risk getting in a fight in a place where he might get trapped.

Yes, it makes sense that the intruder cat wouldn’t want to risk getting trapped in a fight inside a pet house himself. Thanks.

That’s a great shelter for Blacky. She looks healthy in that picture, and she looks like she was posing for you.

I’m wondering what the coldest temps have been in your areas that your cats have survived in. Thursday night into Friday I’m getting -14 with a wind chill probably 30-40 below. I’m just thankful that we’re only getting a couple inches of snow today. Muffin seems dazed sometimes, but he’s eating well and staying in his house. I don’t know how any feral survives this type of weather without a caregiver and shelter. I don't even understand how their paws don't get stuck to the ice in this cold.

We are headed for another round of bitter cold.  It is has been snowing off and on all day, but the wind has really picked up and the temps are dropping quick.  My two boys have been out and about every day this week.  I think they are so tired of being cooped up in their shelter.  I know Stellar goes under my neighbors screened porch and I think Shadow must follow him sometimes.  I am glad they are out and about.  They must be getting used to the cold.  Unfortunately I do not see an end in sight with the cold cold weather.  At least the wind should die down here by tomorrow evening.  We are to have temps of -10 and wind chills of -30.

Keep warm little ferals all around the country and beyond.