- Joined
- Jan 6, 2015
- Messages
- 8
- Purraise
- 2
Hello all,
I’m a new member, and am hoping to get your guidance. There’s a sweet little gray feral cat we’ve been feeding for over a year, and right now she’s sleeping in a very makeshift shelter I’ve made for her in a sheltered area by our garage. It’s basically a cardboard box with straw in it, lined with mylar emergency blanket and half-buried in a pile of more straw.
I created this "shelter" when it was cold out but not bitterly cold, but over the next couple of days the weather is supposed to be dangerously cold (in the negative 20s F). There’s an larger-than-ideal opening at the top, and this box is not adequate protection. On Monday I ordered a Styrofoam cooler online and it should be here tomorrow night.
My question for you is: should I replace the “shelter” that she’s used to with the new shelter I create out of the cooler tomorrow night? I don’t get off work till late, and it will probably be 10 o’clock by the time I’m able to switch out the shelters, at which point she is usually hunkered down in her shelter. My SO thinks that we should place the new shelter outside next to her current one, and this seems to be the best plan for me now.
I might be overthinking this, but the fact is that the cat is *very* skittish—we’ve been feeding her for ages and she won’t let us get within 10 feet of her. I'd love to try to get her in the garage somehow, but even so much as walk towards her shelter and she goes sprinting off into the night. I’m worried that by messing with the arrangement she's used to when we’re in the middle of this dangerous cold snap, I might frighten her away from staying even in her existing, inadequate shelter. (Adding the new shelter will involve rearranging some wood and the straw pile.)
Help!?
I’m a new member, and am hoping to get your guidance. There’s a sweet little gray feral cat we’ve been feeding for over a year, and right now she’s sleeping in a very makeshift shelter I’ve made for her in a sheltered area by our garage. It’s basically a cardboard box with straw in it, lined with mylar emergency blanket and half-buried in a pile of more straw.
I created this "shelter" when it was cold out but not bitterly cold, but over the next couple of days the weather is supposed to be dangerously cold (in the negative 20s F). There’s an larger-than-ideal opening at the top, and this box is not adequate protection. On Monday I ordered a Styrofoam cooler online and it should be here tomorrow night.
My question for you is: should I replace the “shelter” that she’s used to with the new shelter I create out of the cooler tomorrow night? I don’t get off work till late, and it will probably be 10 o’clock by the time I’m able to switch out the shelters, at which point she is usually hunkered down in her shelter. My SO thinks that we should place the new shelter outside next to her current one, and this seems to be the best plan for me now.
I might be overthinking this, but the fact is that the cat is *very* skittish—we’ve been feeding her for ages and she won’t let us get within 10 feet of her. I'd love to try to get her in the garage somehow, but even so much as walk towards her shelter and she goes sprinting off into the night. I’m worried that by messing with the arrangement she's used to when we’re in the middle of this dangerous cold snap, I might frighten her away from staying even in her existing, inadequate shelter. (Adding the new shelter will involve rearranging some wood and the straw pile.)
Help!?