Cat Houses

The “kittos” as we call them have been inside cats since they first came to live with us. Mainly because I’ve known all along that inside cats live much longer lives. Well, after four years I have made the decision that it will enrich their lives enough to make it worthwhile (not to mention the side benefit of not having to deal with the litter box). Last spring we did a transition to them being outside and we waited until the weather was pretty nice and warm. It took a month or two until we got them spending most of their time outside and now they are outside during the day when we’re not at home and they are outside at night when we’re in bed. They are pretty good most of the time about knowing when we’ll be home and they come inside when we call for them. So, with the winter weather coming on, we decided the best thing for them would be to have some nice little shelters (cat houses if you will) to keep them out of the elements.

Jeremy came up with the design (I was the project manager / consultant on the design, but didn’t really come up with the ideas so much as explain how I thought they should be designed and what to take into account) and he even had the forethought (Houston has pretty terrible summers) to design them so that they can be warm and sealed off in the winter but have the option to convert them in the summer so that they vent well so that they can still provide shelter even when it is hot. I must say that Jeremy took it to a whole new level on this one and each cat now has their very own cat house to call their own, complete with vinyl siding, aluminum flashing on the bottom to prevent wood rot, an insulated floor and a doorbell (just kidding, they don’t have doorbells).

Before putting them outside we selected a nice spot for them to go and then did a little conditioning with the cats to make sure they knew how to go in and get out and then we set them out and put some nice treats and some catnip inside to entice them to go on in. Bisquitte took right to hers and now she can be found in there in the morning and if the weather is crummy (super cold or rainy), you practically have to go and get her to come inside for morning breakfast. I can’t say I blame her – why would you want to leave such a cozy place and go out in the rain?

Mugsy on the other hand, must have some nice place down the street he prefers to his house because I don’t ever see him use them. But, I hope that over time and when we move to our new house, I can convince him it’s worth using – it may take some creative placement to figure out where he would prefer his bachelor pad to be. We did have a bit of a scare during our arctic weather week where he was missing for seven days. I had gone to the shelter to look for him, put out fliers, and even made a missing pet report and finally decided that he was gone forever – killed by a coyote perhaps. I was so sad that he was gone and then I was looking out the window one afternoon and he came trotting up the sidewalk and I nearly had a coronary trying to get the door open for him to come inside. He had a nice big meal of mackerel fish and lounged around the rest of the day. Who knows where he was but he must have found a nice warm spot or else he would have frozen to death in the sub-zero temperatures. He actually stayed in for about ten days not too long after that because we had a vet appointment and didn’t want him to be AWOL that day and then we kept them in again during our snowy days recently so that he didn’t have to find a warm spot himself. We may have some stories to tell as we transition the cats to the new house in Houston as I’ve heard cats don’t always adjust well to a move like that, but I think it will probably be okay as long as we take it nice and slow.

And now, some pics of the houses (under construction … I have yet to grab some of the finished thing – another excuse to have to take some pictures I guess). Oh, and after they were built, we took down the cattery we’ve loved so much all these years. If the cats are out all the time or in the house, there isn’t much of a need for it anymore and we didn’t plan on setting it up in the new garage, so it found a new home instead.

Cat House Construction

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