It's bitter cold out and I've seen two cats walk through my yard this afternoon.

[Critters2]

Poor things, out in this cold. I've put food out for 'em.

Would it kill people to spay and neuter?!!

[LadyoftheRabbits]

1. I know...

I always want to gather them all up and let them sleep on a rug in front of an imaginary fireplace. :(

[Critters2]

3. I think I would bring 'em in (that's how I got Leon), if they'd let me. But these guys

are really feral. Can't get near 'em. Poor things.

[LadyoftheRabbits]

8. Yeah, many around my apartment are that way

Adorable, fluffy creatures, but very skittish. :(

[Inchworm]

2. Signed

:(

[femmocrat]

4. They will be fine.

My rickety old cat has lived outside for 19 years. (But he has 2 insulated houses and we put him in the garage when it's really bad out.) Cats have an uncanny sense of survival.

I agree on the spaying and neutering. We have a feral cat who has taken up residence in our back yard. Shooo cat!!!

[BrklynLiberal]

5. My son lives in Chicago and he told me that it was down to the single digits there.

I am getting one of those igloo type houses to put next to my house. There are a couple of "stray" cats that I feed. I want to give them shelter that will protect them from the cold. It was 32.5 degrees on my porch earlier, and that did not include a really strong wind chill factor. It has been blowing like a dry hurricane most of the day.

[Critters2]

10. I think one of them is living in the beagle's dog house, which she doesn't use this time of year.

It has a dog bed, and a secondhand kids' sleeping bag in it. And it's well-sheltered, against a wooden privacy fence. It's 21 here now, with a windchill of 13. So, it's gonna be another cold night.

[BrklynLiberal]

14. bbrrrrrrrrrr

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. I've been feeding a feral for a couple of months now...

So far he's progressed from eating in the side yard to the front porch. Most days he hangs out there and pats at Zelda through the window. He even lets me play with him now; but he still won't let me touch him.

I've made a little shelter for him from an old fake-sheepskin car cushion, some rag towels, and a litterbox lid. Last night I made a hot water bottle for him by heating water in a plastic container; then I put it in his little cat house.
I hope he'll let me touch him soon, so I can get him into the vet...

[Dangerously Amused]

7. I know. Breaks my heart.

This is one of my projects tonight:

I'm taking an old wooden mini-barrel and putting it inside an extra-large plastic pail (to keep it waterproof). Then I'm putting an old wool sweater inside of the barrel, and stuffing the spaces between the outside of the barrel and the pail with loose wool from some old quilts. I'm going to put that with some food outside along the house in an area where it is protected from the wind and the snow, near where I've seen kitty tracks. I hope it works.

Then I'm going to look around for stuff to make another kitty shelter, because I've seen more than one kitty wandering around the neighborhood in zero degrees lately.

=sigh=

[hamsterjill]

9. A simple thank you

Just wanted to give a "thank you" for all of the posters here who are trying to make the lives of feral cats a little better. Thank you for thinking of shelter for them.

I have had the great privilege of being involved with a feral cat colony that exists in a public park. Of course the colony is TNR'd (trapped, neutered and returned) so the cats are spayed, vaccinated, etc. We build wooden shelters for them, fill them with stray, and place them along the perimeters of the colony. Many true ferals (as opposed to hard strays) will not enter a shelter that does not have both an entrance and an exit, so we accommodate our shelters with that in mind.

Again - thanks for all who are going the extra mile for a homeless animal. Small gestures such as these make the world a better place.

[Critters2]

11. We need a TNR program here. How do you fund it? nt

[hamsterjill]

13. Funding, etc.

The one that I have been involved with is a long-standing organization, which has worked out agreements with a local, large grocery store to get pet food that might otherwise be thrown away. For instance, bags that are torn, etc.

There is a 501(c)(3) established for the purpose of caring for the colony and that entity seeks donations and can buy what it needs without paying sales tax, etc. The entity charges a minimal adoption fee for those cats that are vetted and adoptable. These fees never cover the cost of vetting a potential adoptee, but they do help to recoup some of the expense of spay/neuter, etc. This colony is in a very public area, so we have a problem with people dumping unwanted cats in the colony. Because of this, many of the cats are tame, and these are removed as soon as possible and put up for adoption.

Those of us who care about the cats contribute what we can towards food and vetting expenses, we do garage sales, basically anything that can make a little money and is legal! As the group has become better known, donations from outside sources have grown.

Only recently has our city made low cost spay/neuter available, so that has helped tremendously.

There are a lot of good resources available about TNR, particularly the website for Alley Cat Allies.

I guess my best "advice" for anyone thinking of starting a TNR project would be to simply begin. Every cat that is fixed is one less that can breed and compound the overpopulation problem. Don't think that just because you can't afford to fix them all at the onset - that doing what you can won't matter. It will. Every little bit helps.

Again, thanks to all for caring about these creatures.

[Dangerously Amused]

12. Thank YOU!

Hey, that is good to know about shelters having both an entrance and an exit available. I hadn't even thought of that, but will definitely keep it in mind for my next shelter-making attempt.