Has anyone let cats live in their garage?

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:48:48 -0700 (PDT), dberrycat
wrote:

On Oct 16, 9:04*am, dgk wrote:
I'm really torn. Scooter is the outside cat that I've been feeding and
just had neutered and tested. Perfectly healthy but I can't really
take in another cat and Espy hates this one. Right now, because it's
cold, windy, and rainy, Scooter is in my Cat Introduction Room but
that can't last. He already wants to get out into the rest of the
house. Espy is going nuts and making noises I've never heard before.

I thought about building him some sort of cat house outside for the
winter but I can't figure out how to keep it reasonably warm and dry.
Oh, well there are these things:http://www.cozycatfurniture.com/cat_houses.html

Some look about right and have optional heat and insulation. But that
sure isn't cheap.

I thought that maybe I could just put a cat door in my garage and let
him live there, but I could end up with a whole colony of cats and
have to neuter them all and/or deal with the kittens. That's a bit
more than I want to deal with.

Any advice?

Alley Cat Allies has some ideas and plans for outdoor feral (or other)
cat shelters. See:

http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=631
http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?id=36

It is also a good site to get information about helping feral cats
and TNR. http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=616

Debbie


Thanks, that is an excellent site. I wish they would define "very
cold". I don't think New York City qualfies but it did drop to 8F two
winters ago.

I don't have the room for the shelter that they have the plans for,
but there are some very important tips that I can use. One is to ditch
the carpet (retains moisture and fleas) and use tile or linoleum with
wood chips or straw. I also think I made the opening too big; I'll
need to redo that. Plus, paint it. I was actually thinking of staining
the wood.

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:33:39 -0400, "cybercat"
wrote:


Indeed a 100W bulb puts out a hell of a lot of heat. Amateur radio
people use them to keep the cans and repeaters at a nice toasty temp
during the winter.

I can see this, but weird as it may sound, in order to be warm the cat would
have to be in glaring bright light all the time. Not a bad alternative to
freezing to death, admittedly.

Cats must be tough this cat was accidently locked in deep freezer for
19 hours and survived (-18 degrees centigrade = 0 degrees fahrenheit)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkAdsJrI_14

Googling heated pet mats
http://tinyurl.com/pet-mats

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:55:35 +1100, Petzl wrote:

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:33:39 -0400, "cybercat"
wrote:


Indeed a 100W bulb puts out a hell of a lot of heat. Amateur radio
people use them to keep the cans and repeaters at a nice toasty temp
during the winter.

I can see this, but weird as it may sound, in order to be warm the cat would
have to be in glaring bright light all the time. Not a bad alternative to
freezing to death, admittedly.

Cats must be tough this cat was accidently locked in deep freezer for
19 hours and survived (-18 degrees centigrade = 0 degrees fahrenheit)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkAdsJrI_14

Googling heated pet mats
http://tinyurl.com/pet-mats

Thanks, but no point shipping them halfway around the world. There are
some in the US.

Pretty Girl was hanging out in her new home yesterday. Once I put in
some heat I'm sure she and Scooter will move in full time. Hmm. I may
need to make it bigger if their kids want to move in or it's going to
get crowded.

dgk wrote:
On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:33:39 -0400, "cybercat"

wrote:


"T" wrote in message
...
In article
,
says...

I have an outside cathouse that we've used for
years.My hubby
built it out of plywood, but you can use a doghouse or
anything
else you can come up with. Just have a small cat-size
entrance
door, put a thick sponge mattress on the floor & a
blanket. The
secret to keeping it cozy & warm is simple. Hang a 100
watt bulb
in the ceiling! That's all it takes & it'll be sooo
warm you'll
wanna crawl in there yourself...pj

Indeed a 100W bulb puts out a hell of a lot of heat.
Amateur radio
people use them to keep the cans and repeaters at a nice
toasty temp
during the winter.

I can see this, but weird as it may sound, in order to be
warm the
cat would have to be in glaring bright light all the time.
Not a bad
alternative to freezing to death, admittedly.


Of course it would make it easy to see inside the box but
I don't
really like the idea. I suppose I could use some sort of
casing to
block the light. But, there is also this:

http://cozywinters.com/shop/kh-3093.html

Now we're talking.

I'm looking around a bit. Some of the pads says that they
only go on
when the cat is on them. That might be a good feature in
the long run.

If you are going to furnish the house with a kitty bed:

http://cozywinters.com/shop/snugglesafe.html

Before my feral cats began sleeping inside the house, I used
this product. I cut circles in a piece of foam, put the
discs in the circles, and put the kitty beds on top. The
cats loved them.