Hello fellow cat lovers!
I am a new member, don't use the internet much except to read my favorite newspaper, and this is the first forum of any kind I have used. I hope to get help from those of you who have lots of experience raising cats, because I am a novice, especially at raising outdoor cats. I am retired and moved to the tiny Kansas town in which I was born after years of living in New York City and Europe. Quite a change, but I absolutely love it here.
I hope those of you in either rural settings or urban settings who have outdoor cats in cold climates can help me. Does anyone have experience with those microwavable discs made by Snuggle Safe? I've seen them advertised in a Revival Animal Health catalog. They are supposed to stay warm for 12 hours--but is that indoors or outdoors? Do they really work? They are expensive and I would need 4-6 of them. Any other ideas? Other brands?
I'm sure many of you are going "Why not let them inside?" or "Don't you have a garage?" so, I will explain my situation, if you have a little time to read this.
Last winter I fed a lovable stray. Enjoyed her so much that I decided to adopt her even though it turned out she was pregnant.
I have an indoor cat who, in spite of trying everything the books and common sense said, would never accept this new cat. Fortunately my bedroom, bath, and the office are down a hallway that has a hall door, so I was able to close off those two rooms in order to keep the very pregnant new one inside out of the cold.
My plan was to let her have her litter inside, socialize the kittens and give them away. Unfortunately the day she decided to have them, she streaked out when I opened the outside door. She had five kittens under the back porch of an old uninhabited house a block away.
Finally at 7-1/2 weeks, she brought them up and of course they were wild as March hares. A few weeks later, Mama got spayed. Then in August they were somewhat tamed and five months old so I had the four females spayed and the male neutered. And now I cannot bear to part with a one of them.
Now it is fall going into winter in Kansas and starting to get cold. I built them a hay bale fort outside my back door, with an old piece of decking as a floor, covering the bales with cloth so they wouldn't get so dirty (three are long hairs and I'm always busy enough getting sandburs and seeds out of their hair!). I laid old shelving across the bottom bales, then set more bales on the shelving, and covered all with a very heavy tarp, leaving an opening. The space is very clean and I have a water supply inside. They do use this fort, thank goodness! It is definitely wind protection and does provide an improvement on the temperature, but I want to also try to provide a heat source for when Kansas temps go down to near zero.
As you can imagine, a heat lamp is not safe (a resident some blocks away placed a heat lamp near straw and had a fire last year).
You might wonder why I don't let them in the house or put them in a garage. #1, I live with my 88 year-old mother and she already deals with one cat underfoot and I fear that she would trip and fall if there were any more cats in the house!
#2, after 6 months of trying, our older indoor cat still gets furious and enraged with the outdoor Mama, let alone five others! The indoor cat was so enraged that she bit me severely, with two doctor visits and antibiotics necessary. So on these two counts alone, sharing the house is not an option.
The first night that the temperatures dropped about 30 degrees to 26, I did entice them into the back two rooms. But in spite of being tame, two of my cuddlers just panic when inside. I spent half the night comforting them and peeling them off the back door.
Although I feel they are safe outside with Mama (who is smart, brave and a wonderful mother), I am uncomfortable leaving just two young ones out by themselves. We do not have a fence, nor can we afford to build one. There are skunks and possums--yup, this is farmland territory, "city" population about 300!
#3 There is no garage, and our funds, as retirees, are limited.
Thank you so much for any replies to this new thread!
alliecallie aka "Leann"
Writing for:
Little Gray (Mama), Silky, Butterscotch, DT (Deep Trouble), Maizie (yep, yellow as Kansas wheat, but also a 30's name and she looks a little like Betty Boop), and Fluffa.
I am a new member, don't use the internet much except to read my favorite newspaper, and this is the first forum of any kind I have used. I hope to get help from those of you who have lots of experience raising cats, because I am a novice, especially at raising outdoor cats. I am retired and moved to the tiny Kansas town in which I was born after years of living in New York City and Europe. Quite a change, but I absolutely love it here.
I hope those of you in either rural settings or urban settings who have outdoor cats in cold climates can help me. Does anyone have experience with those microwavable discs made by Snuggle Safe? I've seen them advertised in a Revival Animal Health catalog. They are supposed to stay warm for 12 hours--but is that indoors or outdoors? Do they really work? They are expensive and I would need 4-6 of them. Any other ideas? Other brands?
I'm sure many of you are going "Why not let them inside?" or "Don't you have a garage?" so, I will explain my situation, if you have a little time to read this.
Last winter I fed a lovable stray. Enjoyed her so much that I decided to adopt her even though it turned out she was pregnant.
I have an indoor cat who, in spite of trying everything the books and common sense said, would never accept this new cat. Fortunately my bedroom, bath, and the office are down a hallway that has a hall door, so I was able to close off those two rooms in order to keep the very pregnant new one inside out of the cold.
My plan was to let her have her litter inside, socialize the kittens and give them away. Unfortunately the day she decided to have them, she streaked out when I opened the outside door. She had five kittens under the back porch of an old uninhabited house a block away.
Finally at 7-1/2 weeks, she brought them up and of course they were wild as March hares. A few weeks later, Mama got spayed. Then in August they were somewhat tamed and five months old so I had the four females spayed and the male neutered. And now I cannot bear to part with a one of them.
Now it is fall going into winter in Kansas and starting to get cold. I built them a hay bale fort outside my back door, with an old piece of decking as a floor, covering the bales with cloth so they wouldn't get so dirty (three are long hairs and I'm always busy enough getting sandburs and seeds out of their hair!). I laid old shelving across the bottom bales, then set more bales on the shelving, and covered all with a very heavy tarp, leaving an opening. The space is very clean and I have a water supply inside. They do use this fort, thank goodness! It is definitely wind protection and does provide an improvement on the temperature, but I want to also try to provide a heat source for when Kansas temps go down to near zero.
As you can imagine, a heat lamp is not safe (a resident some blocks away placed a heat lamp near straw and had a fire last year).
You might wonder why I don't let them in the house or put them in a garage. #1, I live with my 88 year-old mother and she already deals with one cat underfoot and I fear that she would trip and fall if there were any more cats in the house!
#2, after 6 months of trying, our older indoor cat still gets furious and enraged with the outdoor Mama, let alone five others! The indoor cat was so enraged that she bit me severely, with two doctor visits and antibiotics necessary. So on these two counts alone, sharing the house is not an option.
The first night that the temperatures dropped about 30 degrees to 26, I did entice them into the back two rooms. But in spite of being tame, two of my cuddlers just panic when inside. I spent half the night comforting them and peeling them off the back door.
Although I feel they are safe outside with Mama (who is smart, brave and a wonderful mother), I am uncomfortable leaving just two young ones out by themselves. We do not have a fence, nor can we afford to build one. There are skunks and possums--yup, this is farmland territory, "city" population about 300!
#3 There is no garage, and our funds, as retirees, are limited.
Thank you so much for any replies to this new thread!
alliecallie aka "Leann"
Writing for:
Little Gray (Mama), Silky, Butterscotch, DT (Deep Trouble), Maizie (yep, yellow as Kansas wheat, but also a 30's name and she looks a little like Betty Boop), and Fluffa.
