Cold weather and uncooperative family (venting)

david68

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I've been taking care of a TNR colony for several years that's centered on property owned by a cousin, adjacent to property owned by me. I would move them, but the land I own is undeveloped--no electricity or well for water.

My cousin had been feeding them simply by dumping a bag of food out on the ground every now and then. I found some of them on my property, malnourished, and traced them back to her place. I got all of them TNRed and vaccinated, and with more food, they've been much healthier.

She has an old shed for shelter that has electricity, and for a couple of years, I had pet heating mats in a large box I built that I'd plug in in very cold weather. There were no problems. Then, last year, my cousin got the idea into her head that this was going to burn down her shed (more likely to fall down) and insisted, right before the coldest weather of the winter, that all the electrical heating be removed. No amount of reasoning would change her mind. (Karma then happened; even though I'd warned her about this, she took no steps to prevent pipes in her house freezing and had some crack and make a huge mess.)

I spoke to her about it last summer, and she seemed to be considering changing her mind. I work in electronics and know ALL about electrical safety, heat management, etc..., so I built something that would be far too expensive to buy, using power resistors, a heavy metal enclosure, and a heat sink. Bulletproof. I left it for her to look at and encouraged her to plug it in and verify that it wouldn't catch anything on fire. She acknowledged finding it, but that was it. (Keep in mind that I've done her many favors by fixing things for her; she's done nothing in return.)

In light of the extreme cold weather, I contacted her last week both via phone and email multiple times asking if we could use this custom-built electrical heat source for the duration of the below-normal weather. No response. (This is behavior I've seen from her before--unless she wants something.) I tried checking with her daughter. No response.

The cats can get under her house, so I hope they are able to find some shelter there, and they have some insulated boxes in the shed filled with wheat straw. I fed them yesterday, and I'm hoping they all make it through the coldest weather we've had in over 10 years.

Sorry for the venting, but it's so agonizingly frustrating to work so hard to do the right thing, only to have one idiot decide on a whim to throw a monkey wrench into the works. I know others of us have been there when the cats aren't on your property.
 

shadowsrescue

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I am so sorry you are dealing with an uncooperative relative.  How far away do you live from her? 

If she is unwilling to help with the cats, then maybe you need to be sure they have plenty of shelters stuffed with straw.  If they huddle up together, they really should be fine as long as they are getting food daily. 

How often are they getting fed?  Also how many cats are there?
 

di and bob

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There are some non-electric mats that reflect the animals own body heat back you might look into, I've found them on Amazon for a really cheap price. Plastic tubs filled with straw work good too. Food is the most important during the winter, they HAVE to eat good because they use a lot of energy trying to stay warm. If you could just make sure they are well fed it would help. Those heated mats have all kinds of safety features built in, so I don't know where she is going with that, you could offer to wire in a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (found at all hardware store) to put her mind at ease, it would replace the existing outlet. Bless you for helping these babies, I pray she'll come around, she sounds pretty difficult. They also use hardly ANYTHING in electricity, I think I read about the same as a 40 watt bulb, so it can't be that either. All the luck!
 
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david68

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I live about 18 miles away and drive down to feed the cats. I can't go every day, so I leave plenty of food in trays in the shelter. They tend to put on weight in the winter, so no one is skinny. They all ate a big meal of wet food yesterday with dry kibble left out. They do at least have a heated water bowl she hasn't insisted on unplugging.

There are 12 cats, and I took a whole bale of fresh wheat straw down there last week and packed the insulated cardboard boxes with it. I could tell the wheat straw had been used by the nests they'd made.

What I had made was a larger box with a wooden frame and insulated sides and top, and I had the heated mat inside. You could stick you hand in the box and feel that the air inside was warmer. The idea was that it would provide a refuge for cats that were in distress due to cold. That was what she insisted on turning off.

This is someone with so little sense that she insists on wrapping a cotton towel (!) around the yard faucet because she imagines that that will keep it from freezing. (This is the type of faucet that has the valve down in the ground so that it won't freeze.)
 
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david68

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Those heated mats have all kinds of safety features built in, so I don't know where she is going with that, you could offer to wire in a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (found at all hardware store) to put her mind at ease, it would replace the existing outlet. Bless you for helping these babies, I pray she'll come around, she sounds pretty difficult.
Thanks for the prayers and the encouragement.

There's already a GFCI outlet installed, but to put someone's mind at ease, that person has to be able to understand risk in a rational way. This particular person has a history of being very difficult to deal with on any issue that requires cooperation. She's very suspicious and always thinks that people have ulterior motives and hidden agendas even when they're being perfectly honest with her. When I try to reassure her that this is all very safe, I'm sure she's thinking that I'm trying to trick her.
 

ondine

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You mentioned that your properties abut one another. Is there a way to build or put up a shed on your property and gradually bring the cats to your land? It may, in the end, be easier that dealing with an irrational person. I too, have a relative who needs constant hand-holding and who does things that make no sense at all. Just dealing with her is sometimes dibilitating!

Thank you for all you are doing for these kitties. It's hard enough without having to navigate the human factor, too.
 

ondine

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Oh,duh - I just read your post more carefully. My compound has neither electric or water-I use the microwave disks for heat in the winter and bring water from the house. I suppose it is too far for you to bring the water there?

But really, if you could put the shelters closer to you, it would certainly save you from having to constantly deal with the relative and might help lessen the worry about the cats.
 
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david68

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Hauling water down there would be a major effort, plus they do have the electrically-heater water bowl through the winter at my cousin's place. On my property, there's no way, at present, I could keep it from freezing.
 

ondine

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Oh, poo.  It sounds like you'll have to put up with her eccentricities.  Hopefully, she'll come to realize what you're saying is best for the cats.
 
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david68

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The good news is that I fed the cats yesterday, and they seem to have survived the 9F low yesterday morning. One didn't show up, but she doesn't always come to eat while I'm there.

To complicate matters, there was no water at the faucet, so I had to go to another cousin's house nearby, get water, and go back to fill the heater water bowl. I'm not sure if her pipes froze again or if they drained the system to prevent freezing.

That cousin would help out more, but she and the difficult one can't stand each other, so she can't go on her property. (Before someone suggests it, the helpful cousin has several dogs, so I don't think we'd be able to get the cats to move over to her place.)
 
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