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[wombat`]

I have never been a cat person; however, a few years ago my wife and I saw a small feral cat/kitten sitting in our side yard in 6 or so inches of snow just looking at us. We immediately felt sorry for the poor thing and decided to put some food our for her (as it turned out). We gradually put the food down closer to our porch and then on our porch out of the weather. Anyway, long story short, that was a few years ago and Rusty (the cat) has since had her own kittens who have had their own kittens bringing the "cat population" eating and sleeping on our porch to around 20.

Earlier this year I bought a few plastic carry cases/kennels and bolsters for the cats to sleep in and get out of the cold. Now; however, there is insufficient room for all of them and I really need to build them a Winterized, wooden shelter. That is one of the reasons I am here ... to get some advice on the size of the shelter needed and best way to go about building one.

Other than the above, I live in New York State, am retired and am a 100% animal lover of ALL animals.

 

[Stan]

@wombat` My girlfriend just bought a Cat House for some feral cats she feeds by her job. @Foxybananas Can you help out Wombat

Welcome to the site

 

[wombat`]

Thank you, I'll take a look

 

[Foxybananas]

@wombat`
It always makes me happy to hear about people going out of their way to make sure these poor, innocent stray cats are fed and protected, especially during the winter months. Thank you and your wife for being so kind!.

First thing that I will advise is to get those cats neutered / spayed so they stop reproducing. Contact your local animal control for guidance as they can either help you or at least direct you to organizations that help the community trap, neuter and release. Otherwise, in 2 years you will have 40 cats.

I am not a builder so my coworker and I decided to buy a winterized outside cat house for the 3 stray/feral cats we feed. It is 38 inches wide and we think just right for 3 cats. We got the house from Amazon and to further make it warmer, added silver insulation inside and stapled it in and added straw, that I purchased from Chewy. Check out the pictures. Now, this house has only one entrance, but I've read in several articles that sometimes is better to add an additional entry way that the cats can use to escape IF an intruder goes in (raccoons). If you have the tools and talent you can build something similar to what they sell.

If you have already built the shelter, please share pictures. I would have loved to have you as a neighbor, I could have paid you to built me that shelter! I've seen some online cost $200 and $300 for medium sized shelters that only fit 2 or 3 cats.

 

[wombat`]

@Foxybananas

Thank you and that looks pretty straight forward to construct. Thanks for the pics and the dimmensions as well, they help a lot and give me a starting point for building something. At the moment I am relying on the "kennels and bolsters" I bought for them.

When I do build something I will certainly post up some pictures of what I put together for you guys.

While I am more of a dog person, I couldn't let a kitten starve or freeze to death - that wouldn't be right and too cruel. My wife and I kind of adopted that one kitten a couple of years or so ago and she has stayed with us ever since increasing her family each year.

Getting them spayed/neutered is a good idea and something I/we will need to look into soon if we want to control the population. I know of one other lady (our mail person) who cares for stray/feral cats as well and I think she also mentioned getting them done. I'll have to ask her about it.