I hope those of you in either rural settings or urban settings who have outdoor cats in cold climates can help me. I live in a small rural town and last winter 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, but was able to close off the back two rooms in my house to keep the very pregnant new one inside out of the cold. My hope was to let her have her litter, 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 five months old and I had the little four females spayed and the male neutered. And 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, laying old shelving across the bottom bales, then setting more bales on the shelving, and covering 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). 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? Any other ideas?
You might wonder why I don't let them in the house. #1, I live with my 88 year-old mother and she already deals with one cat underfoot. #2, after 6 months of trying, our older indoor cat still gets furious and enraged with the outdoor Mama, let alone five others! I have tried all the "introducing a new cat" hints that websites and books offer. The indoor cat was so enraged that she bit me severely one time, so sharing the house is not an option on all counts.
Also, two of the kitties really panic when inside the back of the house in those two cordoned-off rooms. 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!
This is a long post from a brand new member, and am so hoping this forum can be of help to me. (I am retired and my very first cat, our indoor cat, was also a starving abandoned adopted stray who turned out to be declawed and neutered. So I have little experience with cats.) Thank you so much for any replies to this new thread! alliecallie
I have an indoor cat, but was able to close off the back two rooms in my house to keep the very pregnant new one inside out of the cold. My hope was to let her have her litter, 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 five months old and I had the little four females spayed and the male neutered. And 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, laying old shelving across the bottom bales, then setting more bales on the shelving, and covering 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). 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? Any other ideas?
You might wonder why I don't let them in the house. #1, I live with my 88 year-old mother and she already deals with one cat underfoot. #2, after 6 months of trying, our older indoor cat still gets furious and enraged with the outdoor Mama, let alone five others! I have tried all the "introducing a new cat" hints that websites and books offer. The indoor cat was so enraged that she bit me severely one time, so sharing the house is not an option on all counts.
Also, two of the kitties really panic when inside the back of the house in those two cordoned-off rooms. 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!
This is a long post from a brand new member, and am so hoping this forum can be of help to me. (I am retired and my very first cat, our indoor cat, was also a starving abandoned adopted stray who turned out to be declawed and neutered. So I have little experience with cats.) Thank you so much for any replies to this new thread! alliecallie
