Cat Shelter

We were outside filling bird feeders this afternoon when we heard a cat crying in the woods behind our house. A few seconds later a tabby came running toward us begging. She appears to be about 10 months old and she was very hungry. We fed her and gave her water. We decided we had to make her a shelter before the storm got here. We couldn't bring her inside because our cats had allergic reactions to vaccines when they were little and couldn't be vaccinated for feline leukemia. While Jim was gone to get the supplies I looked outside to see another stray curled up under a bush outside my window. I told Jim to buy supplies to make 2 shelter boxes.

Below you will see our shelter box made out of 2 plastic storage containers. It's an inexpensive way to provide some help for unfortunate cats that are outside.

You will need a medium size plastic storage container and a larger one so one will fit inside the other with some space to put an insulator of some kind, we used pine pet bedding but straw is often used. Cut openings big enough for a cat to get through but not too big. Allow for an inch or so of pet bedding or straw to go in the bottom of the large container for insulation before the medium one is placed inside.



Next use duct tape to tape the gap between the two boxes around the opening (so the bedding doesn't come out). Pour pine bedding or straw in the gap between the two boxes to act as insulation. Put some of the bedding/straw into the interior box for the cat to snuggle into.



Put the lid on the interior box securely (duct tape if necessary).



Cover the top of the interior box with more bedding as added insulation.



Put the lid on the large box and tape it securely with duct tape. Place the box in a dry location out of the wind. We put ours on the porch. It is best to put cardboard under them or sit them up on bricks off of the cold concrete.

I wish I could bring all the animals inside and out of the harsh weather but I can't. Jim and I feel better knowing they have somewhere to curl up out of the weather.