YAY for Little Dot. Her own private little castle So far my villa has NOT been used . It has gotten very cold here at night. I loaded a bit more straw into the villa. It is butted up to my deck with one of the door openings facing underneath the deck so the cat's can choose to enter from under the deck or from the outside. I am hoping when it starts getting super cold it will be used. So far I don't have the heating pad out. That will only go in when temps are hovering around fifteen degrees or below. The villa seems very well insulated and windproof so I think the heating pad is not needed until very, very cold, extreme temps.